§ Mr. Norman Lamontasked the Secretary of State for Industry if he will publish in the Official Report the percentage rate of return on capital employed before and after allowing for stock appreciation, for manufacturing industry in the United Kingdom for every quarter from 1945 to the latest date for which figures are available.
§ Mr. Les Huckfield:These are not available. There are difficulties in producing reliable quarterly estimates of rates of return on capital employed. Annual estimates back to 1960 were recently published in an article"Companies' rate of return on capital employed 1960 to 1977"in Trade and Industry on 22nd September—page 675, table 1, columns 5 and 6.