§ Mr. RedwoodTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the rate of productivity growth in the public sector was on the last year for which figures are available. [133660]
§ Ruth KellyThe information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician, who has been asked to reply.
Letter from Len Cook to Mr. John Redwood, dated 18 November 2003
As National Statistician, I have been asked to reply to your recent question on productivity growth in the public sector. (133660)
I refer you to the article "Measuring Government Output and Productivity" which was published in Economic Trends, July 2003. The purpose of this article was to report work in progress at the Office for National Statistics. To illustrate the methods used, it included experimental results that provide an indicative estimate of productivity change for government. The latest year for which these figures were shown was 2001 when productivity change (over the previous year) was shown as – 2 per cent. This estimate should be used in conjunction with the guidance provided in the article.
728WThe article is available on the National Statistics website at: http://www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/article.asp?id =400
No estimates have been published covering the whole of the public sector.