§ Mr. Stephen O'BrienTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what the profitability of UK companies has been, broken down by sector, in each quarter since 1997. [148179]
§ Ruth KellyThe information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician, who has been asked to reply.
Letter from Len Cook to Mr. Stephen O'Brien, dated 9 February 2004:
As National Statistician I have been asked to reply to your recent Parliamentary Question concerning the profitability of UK companies, broken down by sector, in each quarter since 1997. (148179)The Office for National Statistics (ONS) First Release "Profitability of UK companies" shows the quarterly profitability of private non-financial companies since 1989. It also shows the breakdown into manufacturing companies, service sector companies and oil extraction companies. This First Release is available free of charge from the National Statistics Website and is available in the House of Commons Library. The web address of the latest edition is http://www.statistics.gov.uk/pdfdir/profit0104.pdfThe ONS do not publish estimates of profitability for financial companies or for public corporations. A further breakdown of sectoral detail for private non-financial corporations is not available.