§ Sir J. D. REESasked the President of the Board of Trade whether, according to the Summary Table on page 21 of the Final Report on the First Census of Production (Cd. 6320), materials which cost £1,028,346,000 possessed, after being manufactured, a selling value of £1,765,366,000; and whether he will lay upon the Table of the House a supplementary Table showing the apportionment of the enhanced value, being a sum of £737,020,000, between the items of rates and taxes, interest on capital, wear and tear of machinery, rents, fuel, salaries, and wages, respectively?
Mr. ROBERTSONAs the hon. Member has stated, the value of all goods included in the Returns of Output made for the First Census of Production amounted to about £1,765,000,000. This sum includes a large value of partly manufactured goods which were sold to be further worked up, and are also included as materials in the total of £1,028,000,000 returned as the value of materials used. The sum of about £25,000,000, returned as paid for work given out to other firms, is doubly represented in the £1,765,000,000, so that the net output, the allocation of which the hon. Member desires, was £712,000,000, not £737,000,000. The particulars which, under the provisions of the Census of Production Act, may be required to be furnished do not include the information which would enable the allocation of the net output among the various heads of wages, salaries, rates and taxes, rents, depreciation, interest, profits, etc., to be made. I may add that expenditure on fuel was included in the Returns among cost of materials.