§ Mr. Marksasked the Chancellor of the Exchequer why the years 1951, 1966, 1970 and 1971 were chosen as representative years in the card, "The United Kingdom in Figures", published by the Governmental Statistical Service.
§ Mr. HigginsThe card "United Kingdom in Figures" was prepared by the Central Statistical Office on behalf of the Government Statistical Service and two main considerations entered into the choice of years. First was the desire to show, long-, medium- and short-term comparisons (20, 5 and 1 year respectively). For social trends especially a longer time span is needed, while many users would wish to see the latest year-to-year changes in economic variables. Second was the need to select years—for example, Census years—for which as many figures as possible were available.