HC Deb 17 December 1969 vol 793 cc346-8W
Mr. Blaker

asked the Minister of Technology what was the amount of capital investment per head employed in the United Kingdom engineering industry in 1967 expressed in dollar terms and how this compared, according to information available to him from international sources, with the corresponding figures for the United States of America, Germany, France, Japan and Sweden, respectively; and what were the comparable figures for 1968.

Investment Employment Investment per head employed
Country $m '000
U.K. Capital Expenditure 1,271 3,442 370
U.S.A. Expenditure for new plant and equipment 6,487* 7,707 840
West Germany Gross Investments 1,585* 2,723 580
France Productive Investments 1,007* 1,422 710
Japan (1966) Investments 1,706 2,611 650
Sweden Investments 311 308 1,000
*Provisional.

Mr. Blaker

asked the Minister of Technology what was the value in dollar terms of the output of the British engineering industry in 1967 and 1968, respectively; what is his estimate of the number of man hours worked to produce this output; and what, according to the information available to him from international sources, were the comparable figures in relation to West Germany, Japan, United States of America, France and Sweden, respectively.

Mr. Alan Williams

Estimates of the value of deliveries and numbers of hours worked are prepared by the O.E.C.D. covering most of the member countries. The 1967 figures are given in the table below where they are available; the latest United States of America figure available is for 1966. No comparable figures exist for 1968.

Known differences in the structure of industry between countries and in the method of deriving the figures indicate that this table should be interpreted with caution.

Deliveries ($m.) Hours worked (million)
United Kingdom 20,456 5,110
West Germany 21,636 3,641
Japan 33,228 4,661
United States (1966) 171,582 9,276
France 15,714 2,037
Sweden 4,446 n.a.

Mr. Alan Williams

Estimates of capital investment and employment in the engineering industries are produced by the O.E.C.D. covering some of the member countries. The 1967 figures are given in the table below for the U.K., U.S.A., West Germany, France and Sweden, the latest available figure for Japan covers 1966; no 1968 figures are available. As the table shows the definition of capital investment varies between countries, thus making comparison difficult.