§
Ruth Kelly
The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician. I have asked him to reply.
Letter from Mr. L Cook to Mr. Michael Jack, dated 29 October 2002:
As National Statistician I have been asked to reply to your recent question on pension contribution statistics [77826].
Following the publication of the Review of Pension Contribution Statistics on 10 October the estimated value of contributions to private pension schemes over the last five years in £ billion are:
| Year |
Value of contributions |
| 1997 |
33.1 |
| 1998 |
37.3 |
| 1999 |
42.3 |
| 2000 |
47.5 |
| 2001 |
149.9 |
| 1Data for 2001 are provisional. They are based on quarterly estimates and include a National Accounts coherence adjustment. |
These figures are consistent with those published in Annex B, Table 1 on pages 31 and 32 of the Review, a copy of which is attached. They include net contributions to funded occupational schemes, individual and employer contributions to individual/ personal pensions and also the employee contributions to unfounded and notionally funded schemes.
The components are shown as follows The row detail refer to Annex B, table 1 of the Review of Pension Contribution Statistics:
| £ million |
| Year |
Contributions to individual and personal pensions1 |
Contributions to unfounded and nationally funded schemes2 |
Contributions to occupational pensions (self administered and insurance managed3 |
Total |
| 1997 |
8,200 |
2,801 |
22,051 |
33,052 |
| 1998 |
9,000 |
2,715 |
25,603 |
37,318 |
| 1999 |
9,400 |
3,024 |
29,874 |
42,298 |
| 2000 |
10,300 |
3,472 |
33,741 |
47,513 |
| 20014 |
11,600 |
3,912 |
34,374 |
49,886 |
| 1Row M |
| 2Employee's part of row L |
| 3Row I + row K |
| 4Data for 2001 are provisional. They are based on quarterly estimates and include a National Accounts coherence adjustment. |
Estimates of the total working population have been taken from Labour Market Statistics issued in October. These estimates cover employed and self-employed persons and include part time
698W
employees and represent the position at April. They are the average of the four quarters in each of the five years. The totals, in thousands, are:
| Year |
Number of people employed |
| 1997 |
26,663 |
| 1998 |
27,044 |
| 1999 |
27,465 |
| 2000 |
27,830 |
| 2001 |
28,090 |
To the nearest £10, the contributions per head of the total working population are:
| £ per year |
| Year |
Value of contribution |
| 1997 |
1,240 |
| 1998 |
1,380 |
| 1999 |
1,540 |
| 2000 |
1,710 |
| 2001 |
1,780 |