§ Mr. Gristasked the Secretary of State for Industry if he will give by standard economic planning region the number of companies employing under 100 and under 500, respectively, showing the total number employed by each group in each region and indicating where possible how many of these companies are privately owned.
§ Mr. Gregor MackenzieThe only information available in my Department on this subject relates to local manufacturing units—rather than companies—recorded in the register of businesses maintained by the Business Statistics Office (BSO). The latest date for which a size breakdown by region is available is 1972.
Because the BSO's register of businesses is not wholly reliable for units employing 1–10 persons, no regional breakdown has been attempted. It is estimated, however, that in 1972 there were about 50,000 units employing in total about 250,000 in this size range in manufacturing industry. The detailed regional data for the size bands 11–99 employees and 100–499 employees are given in the accompanying table.
The employment figures are, in the main, taken from Census of Production 389W returns and are the average numbers employed in the units over a period of 12 months as reported in the census. Additional employment information is obtained from the Annual Census of Employment.
MANUFACTURING UNITS BY EMPLOYMENT SIZE BY COUNTRY AND STANDARD REGION 1972 summary table for units employing 1–499 Employment Size Group Country/Region (as at 1972) 0–10 11–99 100–499 North: Number of Units … … … … . . 1,692 550 Employment … … … … … . . 55,651 128,154 Yorkshire and Humberside: Number of Units … … … … . . 4,462 1,285 Employment … … … … … . . 147,721 271,688 East Midlands: Number of Units … … … … . . 3,447 981 Employment … … … … … . . 116,209 204,554 East Anglia: Number of Units … … … … . . 1,256 281 Employment … … … … … . . 41,996 61,807 South East: Number of Units … … … … . . 15,566 2,767 Employment … … … … … . . 467,119 574,930 South West Number of Units … … … … . . 2,363 569 Employment … … … … … . . 76,317 120,651 West Midlands: Number of Units … … … … . . 5,476 1,402 Employment … … … … … . . 180,167 299,492 North West: Number of Units … … … … . . 5,767 1,608 Employment … … … … … . . 192,750 350,679 Wales: Number of Units … … … … . . 1,367 462 Employment … … … … … . . 45,747 99,804 Scotland Number of Units … … … … . . 3,800 928 Employment … … … … … . . 123,840 197,755 Northern Ireland: Number of Units … … … … . . 746 307 Employment … … … … … . . 27,918 67,386 Total number of Units … … … 50,000* 45,942 11,140 Total Employment … … … … 250,000* 1,475,435 2,376,900 . . Not available. * Estimate.