§ Dr. David ClarkTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer when he expects to publish the next Inquiry into Retail; and to which years' statistics it will relate. [125571]
§ Miss Melanie JohnsonThe information requested falls within the responsibility of the Director of the Office for National Statistics. I have asked him to reply.
Letter from Len Cook to Dr. David Clark, dated 14 June 2000:
As the Director for the Office for National Statistics (ONS) I have been asked to reply to your recent question asking for the date and year of the next Inquiry into Retail (125571).The Sector Review into Retailing (formerly Business Monitor SDA25) will be published in August 2000. The sector review will contain statistics on total turnover, sales by non-store activity, a detailed breakdown of commodity sales, stocks, purchases, capital expenditure, employment costs, taxes and levies for the most recently completed inquiry year 1998 on the new inquiry basis 643W Annual Business Inquiry). It will also contain statistics for the inquiry years 1997, 1996 and 1995 which have been adjusted by a series of factors to reflect the methodology improvements introduced for the 1998 inquiry year and remove the discontinuities with previous estimates.