National Statistical

There is continuing interest in the apparent disparities between the UK’s official statistics on trade and those produced by the European Union (EU), which have increased since the end of the Brexit transition period.  The ONS is working hard to identify and resolve these issues. However, as Matt Hughes explains, a fundamental accounting difference appears to be the major factor. 

As we have discussed before, the pandemic affected how we collected our surveys, and in some cases created bias in…

GDP, as an internationally accepted measure of the economy, is often criticised for missing much of what is important – how much work people do for free in their own homes and what impact the economy has on the environment. Richard Heys talks about plans to develop wider measures that go beyond GDP and what they tell us about our changing society and economy.

The COVID-19 pandemic has shown the importance of providing the public with coherent and accessible statistics where there are multiple producers. A key part of this is working across the statistical system to ensure that our statistics tell a joined up and coherent story.  In this post Debra Prestwood explains the latest work being undertaken across government bodies to ensure that we are drawing together outputs on the same topic to present a single picture.