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Public Expenditure

Mr. Hands: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what percentage of gross domestic product, public expenditure represented in each year since 1996 in (a) the UK, (b) England, (c) Wales, (d) Scotland, (e) Northern Ireland and (f) each Government office region. [89407]

Mr. Timms: Information on total identifiable expenditure for each region of England and for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland is set out in the HM Treasury publication, “Public Expenditure Statistical Analyses (PESA) 2006”, May 2006. This provides outturn data from 2000-01 to 2004-05. Previous editions of “PESA” provide outturn data for years prior to 2000-01. “Public Expenditure Statistical Analyses 2002-03”, May 2002, provides outturn data from 1996-97.

The Office for National Statistics provides data on gross value added (GVA), the Government’s preferred measure of regional economic output, for each region and country of the UK on its website at http://www.statistics.gov.uk/downloads/theme_economy/NUTS1_Tables_1-8.xs.

Public Sector Employment

Mr. Hands: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many and what proportion of all those in employment were employed by the public sector in each year since 1996 in (a) the UK, (b) England, (c) Wales, (d) Scotland, (e) Northern Ireland and (f) each Government Office region. [89403]

John Healey: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician who has been asked to reply.

Letter from Karen Dunnell, dated 9 October 2006:

As National Statistician, I have been asked to reply to your Parliamentary Question about public sector employment by country and region. (89403)

The available estimates, which are annual averages of quarterly figures, are shown in the attached table. Figures by region are not available earlier than 1999.

These estimates are based on returns from public sector organisations, combined with approximate breakdowns from the Labour Force Survey for Wales and the English regions. As these figures are partly based on sample surveys, they are subject to a margin of uncertainty.

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Public sector employment by region and country of workplace; headcount
	North East	North West	Yorks and Humber	East Midlands	East	London	South East
Public sector employment level (thousand)
1999	238	593	440	321	435	413	710
2000	230	641	460	316	428	428	675
2001	244	663	439	319	448	430	706
2002	252	661	459	330	466	440	724
2003	252	680	496	340	467	468	711
2004	262	675	496	368	476	487	739
2005	260	683	492	360	495	470	751
Public sector employment as a percentage of all in employment
1999	23	20	20	17	18	17	19
2000	22	21	20	17	18	17	18
2001	24	22	19	17	18	17	18
2002	24	21	20	17	19	17	19
2003	23	22	21	17	19	18	18
2004	24	21	21	19	19	19	19
2005	24	21	21	18	20	18	19

	South East	South West	England	Wales	Scotland	Northern Ireland	United Kingdom
Public sector employment level (thousand)
1999	629	427	4,205	286	529	197	5,218
2000	638	451	4,266	297	532	200	5,295
2001	643	456	4,349	295	536	202	5,383
2002	644	472	4,448	304	545	206	5,503
2003	670	486	4,571	316	558	212	5,656
2004	696	483	4,682	303	571	216	5,772
2005	706	521	4,738	304	581	219	5,842
Public sector employment as a percentage of all in employment
1999	16	18	18	24	23	29	19
2000	16	19	18	24	22	29	19
2001	17	19	19	25	23	29	19
2002	16	19	19	25	23	29	20
2003	17	20	19	24	23	29	20
2004	18	20	20	23	23	30	20
2005	18	21	20	23	24	29	20

Red Diesel

Mr. MacNeil: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer whether he has made a request to the European Commission asking for an extension of the derogation from the EU Directive 2003/96/EC concerning red diesel; and if he plans to do so. [92611]

John Healey: I refer the hon. Member to my reply of 13 September 2006, Official Report, column 2340W, to the hon. Member for Stroud (Mr. Drew).

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