– Scottish Parliament written question – answered at on 23 May 2005.
Richard Lochhead
Scottish National Party
Question S2W-16440
To ask the Scottish Executive what percentage share of (a) GDP and (b) employment levels was accounted for by the public sector in each of the last 10 years, showing the year-on-year and cumulative changes.
Tom McCabe
Labour
The industry breakdown of gross value added (GVA) presented in Table 1 is based on the Standard Industrial Classification of Economic Activities (SIC) system. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) at basic prices is commonly referred to as GVA.
This time series provides the closest available approximation of the percentage shares of GDP accounted for by the public sector in Scotland, though it should be noted that the SIC system categorises output by industry and does not draw an explicit distinction between activities carried out in the public and private sectors. These estimates therefore include an element of private sector activity within education and health.
Table 1
| Year | Public Admin, Education and Health GVA as % of total Scottish GVA |
| 1992 | 21.7% |
| 1993 | 21.5% |
| 1994 | 20.9% |
| 1995 | 20.8% |
| 1996 | 20.5% |
| 1997 | 20.2% |
| 1998 | 20.1% |
| 1999 | 20.7% |
| 2000 | 21.3% |
| 2001 | 21.7% |
| 2002 | 21.9% |
Source: Office for National Statistics, Regional Accounts.
Table 2 shows the proportion of total employment accounted for by employment in the public sector as well as the year-on-year and cumulative percentage point changes. These estimates are taken from the Labour Force Survey (LFS) which is carried out by the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
ONS has acknowledged that the level of public sector employment recorded by the LFS is over-estimated. This overestimation is caused by the fact that the LFS is self-reported and some people mistakenly believe they work for the public sector when in fact they are employed by private organisations which are contracted to work in the public sector. Such misreporting can arise, for example, when catering staff working in hospitals believe they work in the public sector when they are in fact employed by a private sector catering business.
Analytical Services Division in Enterprise, Transport and Lifelong Learning Department are developing a public sector employment series taken from administrative data. This series will give a more accurate reflection of the size if the public sector in Scotland. The series will be published for the first time in summer 2005.
Table 2
Public Sector Employment as a Proportion of Total Employment in Scotland
Public Sector Employment Level | Public Sector as a proportion of Total Employment | Percentage Point Change | ||
Change Year on Year | Cumulative change since 1995 | |||
| Spring 1995 | 685,000 | 30.4% | N/A | N/A |
| Spring 1996 | 634,000 | 28.6% | -1.9 pp | -1.9 pp |
| Spring 1997 | 622,000 | 27.7% | -0.9 pp | -2.8 pp |
| Spring 1998 | 628,000 | 27.6% | 0.0 pp | -2.8 pp |
| Spring 1999 | 608,000 | 27.0% | -0.7 pp | -3.5 pp |
| Spring 2000 | 638,000 | 27.9% | 0.9 pp | -2.6 pp |
| Spring 2001 | 644,000 | 27.6% | -0.3 pp | -2.8 pp |
| Spring 2002 | 649,000 | 27.9% | 0.3 pp | -2.6 pp |
| Spring 2003 | 657,000 | 27.6% | -0.2 pp | -2.8 pp |
| Spring 2004 | 668,000 | 27.9% | 0.3 pp | -2.5 pp |
Source: Labour Force Survey, Spring Quarters (March-May).
Notes:
Levels has been rounded to the nearest thousand.
Data are not seasonally adjusted. pp – percentage point.
Yes1 person thinks so
No1 person thinks not
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