§ Mr. ChidgeyTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs which UK overseas territories(a) have and (b) have not produced timely, complete and reliable statistical abstracts annually since 1997; with which United Kingdom overseas territories his office has raised queries on the timeliness, completeness and reliability of their (i) annual statistical abstracts and (ii) other statistical reports since 1997; and from which United Kingdom overseas territories satisfactory responses are still awaited. [67642]
§ Andrew MackinlayTo ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs (1) if he will place in the Library the National Income Accounts for each overseas territory received by his Department; and if he will list the date of their last submission; [67852]
(2) if he will place in the Library copies of the latest official statistics for each of the overseas territories that his Department has received; [67850]
(3) with whom the duty for publishing and submitting to his Department the National Income Accounts on Official Statistics for each overseas territory lies; [67849]
(4) on which occasions he has received official statistics over the past five years from each overseas territory; and if he will indicate, in each case, if they are of the standard that he requires. [67851]
§ Mr. Mike O'Brien[holding answer 10 July 2002]Each overseas territory has a slightly different system for the collection and publication of statistics but we look to them all to produce suitable and regular information.
Of the nine overseas territories where there is significant economic activity, seven have regularly produced and published statistics over a five year period up to and including either 2000 or 2001. Montserrat, due to particular circumstances, has been unable to produce comprehensive statistics for several years, but expects to do so in the near future. Gibraltar has recently published a compendium of statistics after a gap of several years. I will be making arrangements for the most recent statistical returns from each of these overseas territories to be placed in the Libraries of the House.
176WHMG are in consultation with certain overseas territories about refining and improving their statistical returns, and where appropriate have offered assistance with this, for example by the secondment of experts.