§ Mr. Onslowasked the Secretary of State for Trade how many traders were ordered to complete a return for the purposes of the inquiry into retail trading for 1976; how many have so far failed to do so; and how many reminders have been sent out.
§ Mr. Meacher:Information is not available in the precise form requested. 30,424 forms have been sent out by the Business Statistics Office for the Inquiry into Retail Trading for 1976. By 14th October 21,710 had been returned and three reminders had been issued in connection with each of the outstanding returns.
§ Mr. Onslowasked the Secretary of State for Trade how many of the traders ordered to complete a return for the purposes of the inquiry into retail trading for 1976 have ceased to trade, and for what reasons.
§ Mr. Meacher:This information is not available because the number of businesses ceasing trading and their reasons for doing so is not part of the annual retailing inquiries. The Business Statistics Office has no way of identifying conclusively those businesses that have ceased to trade. Some forms were returned by the Post Office or by the current occupant of the premises as undeliverable but the businesses may have moved and still be trading. Other forms may not have been returned even when they could not be correctly delivered.
§ Mr. Onslowasked the Secretary of State for Trade what is his estimate of the average number of man-hours, and consequent costs, involved in the completion by traders of the return sent out by the Business Statistics Office for the purposes of the inquiry into retail trading for 1976.
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§ Mr. Meacher:Such estimates could not be made without disproportionate effort. The time taken and costs involved by a business in completing their return depends on the type of form received and how readily the business has the information available.
§ Mr. Onslowasked the Secretary of State for Trade how many staff are currently employed in the Business Statistics Office; and what were the comparable totals in each of the past five years.
§ Mr. Clinton Davis:The number of staff employed, on 1st October each year, was:
1972 … … … … 889 1973 … … … … 1,023 1974 … … … … 1,010 1975 … … … … 1,078 1976 … … … … 1,058 1977 … … … … 1,062
§ Mr. Onslowasked the Secretary of State for Trade what were the total wage costs of the Business Statistics Office in each of the past five years; and what they are estimated to be in the current year.
§ Mr. Clinton Davis:Total wage costs, including employer's national insurance contribution, are as follows:
£000 1972–73 … … 1,716 1973–74 … … 2,143 1974–75 … … 2,450 1975–76 … … 3,237 1976–77 … … 3,469 1977–78 (Estimate) … … 3,820