HC Deb 19 January 1998 vol 304 cc422-4W
Mr. David Heath

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many people are currently employed in the United Kingdom by foreign-owned companies, broken down by country of ownership. [22894]

Mrs. Liddell

The information requested falls within the responsibility of the Chief Executive of the Office for National Statistics. I have asked him to arrange for a reply to be given.

Letter from Tim Holt to Mr. David Heath, dated 19 January 1998: The Chancellor of the Exchequer has asked me to reply, as the Director of the Office for National Statistics (ONS), to your recent question on employment in the United Kingdom by foreign owned companies. The attached table provides data for all foreign owned businesses in the UK. It has been split to show each country within the EU, but for non-EU only 6 countries have been illustrated with the remainder grouped. This is in line with similar data that was produced in an article in the ONS publication Economic Trends, entitled "Globalisation: Scope, Issues & Statistics'—Table 9 in No. 528 November 1997. That data was however based on agriculture, manufacturing and distribution rather than whole economy. The table represents enterprises on the Inter Departmental Business Register (IDBR). An article giving further explanation on the IDBR is in Economic Trends No. 505 November 1995. Information relating to country of ownership details for UK enterprises is provided to the ONS by the market information firm Dun & Bradstreet. The analyses are based on an employment size measure (employees plus working proprietors). The primary source of employees data on the IDBR is the ONS inquiry, Annual Employment Survey. Copies of Economic Trends are available in the House of Commons Library.

Analysis of foreign owned enterprises in the UK for the whole economy
Country of ownership Employment
Austria 2,032
Belgium 10,067
Denmark 159,721
Finland 10,323
France 131,332
Germany 142,496
Ireland 45,747
Italy 20,638
Luxembourg 6,701
Netherlands 92,150
Sweden 42,090
Other EU (Greece, Portugal and Spain) 1,489

Table 1: Mid-1996 resident population of the United Kingdom and its constituent countries and the percentage of all persons in the region who are aged 75+, 80+; and 85+
Thousand Percentage
All ages (a) Age 75 and over (i) Age 80 and over (ii) Age 85 and over (iii) Aged 75 and over of all persons Aged 80 and over of all persons Aged 85 and over of all persons
United Kingdom 58,801.5 4,192.5 2,368.7 1,067.2 7.1 4.0 1.8
England and Wales 52,010.2 3,769.1 2,138.3 969.5 7.2 4.1 1.9
England 49,089.1 3,542.0 2,013.3 913.1 7.2 4.1 1.9
North-East 2,600.5 174.8 94.2 41.8 6.7 3.6 1.6
North West and Merseyside 6,891.3 484.5 272.9 123.3 7.0 4.0 1.8
North West 5,470.8 383.2 215.7 97.7 7.0 3.9 1.8
Merseyside 1,420.4 101.3 57.2 25.7 7.1 4.0 1.8
Yorkshire and Humberside 5,035.5 360.6 203.4 91.6 7.2 4.0 1.8
East Midlands 4,141.5 292.3 162.0 72.4 7.1 3.9 1.7
West Midlands 5,316.6 363.0 198.2 86.5 6.8 3.7 1.6

Analysis of foreign owned enterprises in the UK for the whole economy
Country of ownership Employment
EU sub-total 664,786
Australia 56,000
Canada 53,101
Japan 108,124
Norway 22,131
Switzerland 79,135
USA 749,892
Other 64,006
Non EU sub-total 1,132,389
Total 1,797,175

Source:

Inter Departmental Business Register (ONS).