§ Mr. AshdownTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many people in(a) Somerset and (b) Yeovil constituency earn (a) £3.60 per hour, (b) £3.61 per hour to £3.80 per hour, (c) £3.81p per hour to £4.00 per hour and (d) £4.00 to £4.50 per hour; and what percentage of total employees this constitutes in each case. [110795]
§ Mr. TimmsThe information requested falls within the responsibility of the Director of the Office for National Statistics. I have asked him to reply.
Letter from Jim Holt to Mr. Paddy Ashdown, dated 22 February 2000:
As the Director of the Office for National Statistics (ONS), I have been asked to reply to your recent question regarding earnings for employees in Somerset and Yeovil.The New Earnings Survey (NES) can provide earnings data for small geographical areas. However, the release of NES data is restricted to figures which are derived from a sufficiently large sample of employees, and have an acceptable level of accuracy.1002WI have provided the available data for Somerset and Yeovil in the attached table. These are based on the 1999 NES, the latest survey for which data are available.We are only able to give percentage earning below specified thresholds, rather than numbers because appropriate grossing factors for the NES sample are not available at very detailed levels of disaggregation such as parliamentary constituencies.The NES is based on a one per cent. sample of employees in the PAYE system and is therefore likely to under-represent relatively low paid staff earning below the tax threshold and in particular those who work part-time.
New Earnings Survey, April 1999 (GB): Employees on adult rates, whose pay for the survey period was unaffected by absence Gross hourly earnings excluding overtime Percentage earning £3.60 £3.61-£3.80 £3.81-£4.00 £4.01-£4.50 Somerset Full-time 0.6 0.3 1.4 6.3 Part-time 3.8 6.9 7.7 16.2 All 1.3 1.9 2.9 8.6 Yeovil Full-time 0.8 0.0 0.8 6.3 Part-time 1— 1— 1— 1— All 1.4 1.0 3.1 9.7 1 Denotes reliable estimate unavailable