§ Mr. CousinsTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer under what treaty or directive the EURO PROD COM inquiry has been instituted; and at which meeting the United Kingdom Government gave its consent to the EURO PROD COM inquiry.
§ Mr. NelsonOn December 1991, the EC Internal Market Council of Ministers passed the PRODCOM Regulation (No. 3924/91). The United Kingdom voted against adoption of the regulation.
§ Mr. CousinsTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many enterprises are being asked to submit returns under the EURO PROD COM inquiry; and what assessment he has made of comparability of the sampling frame and statistical base of EURO PROD COM in each country where it is pursued.
§ Mr. NelsonSo far 18,000 enterprises—24,000 contributors—have been informed that they are likely to fall within the scope of the annual and quarterly PRODCOM inquiries for the reference year 1993. Work is being carried out to establish a sample of smaller businesses to be included in the 1993 inquiries. It is expected that this will increase the number of contributors by 5,000.
The Central Statistical Office has compared the methodology of its current product inquiries—as well as its planned implementation of PRODCOM—with that of other national statistical offices in Europe. The most up-to-date published study of product survey methods in European countries (Eurostat's "Industrial Production" booklet; Theme 4, series E) has provided a starting point on the methods currently employed. The PRODCOM regulation allows a two-year transition period during which each country must move its current product statistics inquiries onto the PRODCOM basis. The CSO continues to gather information about the latest plans of other European countries from their representatives on the Statistical Programme Committee for PRODCOM.