Mr. Michael FosterTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what assessment he has made of average earnings in(a) the West Midlands region, (b) the West Midlands conurbation, (c) Birmingham, (d) Walsall, (e) Wolverhampton, (f) Dudley, (g) Solihull, (h) Coventry, (i) Sandwell, (j) Worcestershire, (k) Herefordshire, (l) Shropshire, (m) Warwickshire, (n) North Warwickshire, (o) Nuneaton and Bedworth, (p) Rugby, (q) Stratford-on-Avon and (r) Warwick, in the last year for which figures are available. [87029]
§ Ruth KellyThe information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician. I have asked him to reply.
Letter from L Cook to Mr. M Foster, dated 16 December 2002:
As National Statistician, I have been asked to reply to your recent question on average earnings for counties and unitary authorities in West Midlands. (87029)I have provided a table overleaf, showing average weekly earnings, from the 2002 New Earnings Survey (NES), the latest survey for which data are available.The NES can provide earnings data for small geographical areas. The release of NES data is restricted to figures that are derived from a sufficiently large sample of employees, and have an acceptable level of accuracy and I have provided the available data for the areas requested where the samples are large enough.607W
New Earnings Survey, April 2002 Full time employees on adult rates whose pay for the survey pay period was unaffected by absence £ Average Gross Weekly Earnings West Midlands Government Office Region 427.3 West Midlands Metropolitan County 442.1 Birmingham 459.5 Walsall 372.6 Wolverhampton 434.1 Dudley 391.5 Solihull 465.0 Coventry 488.7 Sandwell 402.3 Hereford & Worcester 400.5 Herefordshire Unitary Authority 375.7 Shropshire 392.0
New Earnings Survey, April 2002 Full time employees on adult rates whose pay for the survey pay period was unaffected by absence £ Average Gross Weekly Earnings Warwickshire 457.4 North Warwickshire 1— Nuneaton and Bedworth 382.2 Rugby 1— Stratford-on-Avon 440.8 Warwick 454.9 1 Denotes the data has been suppressed in line with NES publication criteria.