PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Productivity: Standards (9 February 2016)

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what metrics of performance he used to measure the performance of the Government's Productivity Plan, entitled Fixing the foundations: Creating a more prosperous nation, published in 2015.

Asked by:
Dame Angela Eagle (Labour)

Ultimately, delivering robust productivity growth is the key outcome of the Productivity Plan. Productivity, measured as output per hour worked, grew by 1.3% in the third quarter of 2015 compared to a year earlier. In the latest Inflation Report, the Bank of England increased both its 2016 and 2017 forecasts of productivity growth by 0.25 percentage points.

In addition, many of the measures included in the Productivity Plan have their own individual delivery targets, such as the commitment to 3 million apprenticeships starts this Parliament.

The select committee on Business, Innovation and Skills’ report into the Productivity Plan, published on the 1 February 2016, made a number of recommendations including on the use of measures of success. The Government will respond to the Committee at the end of March 2016.

Answered by:
Lord Johnson of Marylebone (Conservative)
22 February 2016