§ Mr. FlightTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the levels of UK corporate profitability were in each year since 1996. [92819]
§ Ruth KellyThe information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician. I have asked him to reply.
Letter from Len Cook to Mr. Howard Flight, dated 27 January 2003:
As National Statistician I have been asked to reply to your recent question on levels of UK corporate profitability in each year since 1996.Information on profits and rates of return for private sector non-financial companies is available in the "Profitability of UK Companies" First Release which is published by the Office for National Statistics and is available from the House of Commons Library. It is also available from the National Statistics website: www.statistics.gov.uk.Tables 1 to 7 give data back to 1989 or earlier. The latest currently available data cover the 3rd quarter of 2002. Data for the whole of 2002 will be published on 2nd April 2003.The ONS does not produce estimates of rates of return for financial companies, but estimates of profits for this period are in table A3 of "United Kingdom National Accounts" which is also available from the National Statistics website.