HC Deb 28 June 1999 vol 334 c39W
Joan Ruddock

To ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what estimate he has made of the number of people employed in the(a) agricultural and (b) pharmaceutical biotechnology industry in (i) 1997–98, (ii) 1998–99 and (iii) 1999–2000. [87769]

Mr. Battle

This information is not available from official statistics.

A report published earlier this year by the Biolndustry Association1 estimates employment in dedicated biotechnology companies to be between 35–40,000 (with the sector growing annually by over 20 per cent. over the period 1995–98). Of these it estimates that 8–10,000 are employed in the biopharmaceuticals sector, and 3,000 in the biotechnology dedicated area of agriculture.

In addition there is a significant number of people engaged in biotechnology related-work among the 60,000 UK employees of established pharmaceutical companies2 and the 615,000 employed in the UK agriculture sector.3

1"Industrial markets for UK biotechnology—trends and issues2 Monitor Company: The UK Pharmaceutical Industry at a Crossroads3MAFF Statistics