§ Mr. Austin Mitchellasked the Secretary of State for Industry (1) whether he will publish in the Official Report a table showing wages and salaries as a percentage of added value in manufacturing industry;
(2) whether he will publish in the Official Report a table showing for the most recent accounting period (a) interest payments and (b) trading profits in manufacturing industry as a percentage of added value.
§ Mr. MacGregorThe division of added value in manufacturing industry in 1980 was as follows:
Gross Net* per cent. Wages and salaries 72.5 81.9 Employers' contributions† 10.00 11.3 Trading profits of companies, income from self-employment and trading surplus of public enterprises (net of stock appreciation) 17.5 6.8 Total value added 100.0 100.0 * net of depreciation at current replacement cost. † to national insurance, superannuation, and so on. Source: National Income and Expenditure—Blue Book—1981 edition, tables 3.1 and 11.3.
I regret that figures of interest payments by manufacturing industry are not available. For all industrial and commercial companies, interest payments—including dividends on preference shares—in 1980 amounted to 8.4 per cent. of gross value added, but this is not a very meaningful ratio in that value added figures relate to trading activities in the United Kingdom whereas interest payments are associated with companies' total activities. Interest payments are treated in the national accounts as an appropriation of companies' income and would not therefore be shown as a component of value added.