Review of Regional
Trade Statistics
1. WHO SHOULD READ THIS?
Users of Regional Trade Statistics products who wish to give their views on the future of this National Statistics product.
2. INTRODUCTION
HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) introduced the Regional Trade Statistics (RTS) series in January 1999 to support the economic decision-making of the devolved Scottish and Welsh Governments and other regional bodies within the UK.
The RTS is a regional breakdown of the Overseas Trade in Goods Statistics, with trade being allocated to one of the twelve UK regions (the North East, the North West, Yorkshire and the Humber, the East Midlands, the West Midlands, the East, London, the South East, the South West, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland).
The RTS gives a quarterly breakdown by region (defined above), commodity traded (Standard International Trade Classification (SITC) Division) and for pre-selected partner countries. It also gives a business count based on businesses who trade with non-EU countries and those businesses who trade with EU countries who are required to submit full declarations for their EU trade.
3. BACKGROUND TO REVIEW
The main reasons we are reviewing the RTS are:
• To ensure the statistics produced are fit for purpose and still required by users;
• To look at options that improve the usability and quality of the statistics produced;
• To harmonise if possible with the methodologies employed for other regional based statistics produced across the Government Statistical Service (GSS);
• To identify the right balance between producing statistics at regions / locations, with product and partner country; but still ensuring disclosure controls;
• To improve the accuracy of number of businesses count, incorporating additional data sources if possible.
Information concerning the current RTS, including recent releases and methodology can be found at the link here.
4. TOPICS BEING CONSULTED ON
Future of RTS
We would like to know if there is an ongoing need for the RTS and how it benefits your business / organisation.
Question 1a: Is the RTS still essential to your business? If so, please outline the benefits of the RTS to your business / organisation.
In addition, we are interested in finding out about other available statistics currently published that might fully or partially replace your use of the RTS if the RTS is no longer published.
Question 1b: Do you have an alternative data source if the RTS were no longer published? Please explain these sources and their differences to the RTS.
Display / aggregation options
We are looking at customer’s priorities concerning what detail of data is required for the main variables. These are:
• Region / location;
• Commodity breakdown;
• Partner Country breakdown.
We have developed four potential options that combine these variables. When formulating these options we have taken into account that if we increase the level of detail on a data element currently shown in the RTS, this would need to coincide with increased aggregation (less detail) for another.
This is because, under our obligations to both the UK Statistics Authority Code of Practice and the Commissioners For Revenue & Customs Act 2005, we must ensure that the published figures are such that they cannot be used to identify a particular business or its trade.
If we were to move to a new option, it is anticipated that we will only be able to produce a new backseries covering a short period of time. Please be aware of this if selecting an alternative option to the current one.
The following four options for consultation are outlined below.
For an explanation of the classifications and aggregations used please see Annex 1 (pages 7-8). To see the options in a tabular form please see Annex 2 (page 9).
Question 2: Which ‘format’ option most closely meets your business need, and why?
Option 1This option is as per the current RTS
• Regional Breakdown – NUTS1 (see Annex 1) - Government Office Regions for England plus Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland
• Commodity Breakdown - SITC division (2-digit)
• Partner Country breakdown – Current RTS breakdown
Option 2
This option increases detail in commodity breakdown but has greater aggregation in partner countries
• Regional Breakdown – NUTS1
• Commodity Breakdown - SITC group (3-digit)
• Partner Country breakdown - ‘World’ Regions (possibly EU / Non-EU if deemed to be too disclosive)
Option 3
This option increases detail in UK Regional breakdown but has greater aggregation in partner country and commodity
• Regional Breakdown – NUTS2
• Commodity Breakdown - SITC Section (1-digit)
• Partner Country breakdown - ‘World’ Regions (possibly EU / Non-EU if deemed to be too disclosive)
Option 4
This option has a further increase in UK Regional breakdown but has major aggregation in partner country and commodity
• Regional Breakdown – NUTS3
• Commodity Breakdown – SITC section (1-digit)
• Partner Country breakdown - EU / Non-EU (possibly Total if deemed to be too disclosive)
Frequency of Publication
Currently the RTS is published on a quarterly basis and is made up of two main aspects:
• Data Tables – numbers relating to value of trade and number of businesses (Fixed and interactive); and
• Commentary – explanation of key changes in the patterns of trade.
They are currently published approximately 9 weeks after the end of the last month of the quarter e.g. the 2015 Quarter 2 release was published on 3 September 2015.
We are asking whether you would like both the data tables and the commentary to remain quarterly or for either or both of them to move to an annual release.
If the data tables are to be published annually they will still include a quarterly breakdown. It is anticipated that annual releases will be published at the time the current Quarter 4 releases are published (early March of the following year).
Question 3a: How often would you prefer the data tables to be published, quarterly or annually?
Question 3b: How often would you prefer the commentary to be published, quarterly or annually?
Other Methodological Issues
We are interested in any comments you have concerning the existing RTS methodology and how we can improve it. The current RTS methodology is published here.
Question 4: If you have any further comments on this consultation or the RTS methodology please write them here. In particular if you have comments on the following:
· Methodologies to reduce the effect of Head Office Distortion;
· Harmonising with the methodologies of other regional based GSS Statistics;
· The use of additional data sources to enhance business count information;
· Back-casting of time-series;
· Any specific partner countries that are not currently published;
· Options for reducing the size of the ‘Unknown’ region.
5. WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?
We will take your responses into account and these will contribute to our considerations. A report will be published that will summarise the responses we receive.
Any changes to the RTS that arise from this consultation will be pre-announced on our website uktradeinfo.com.
6. HOW DO I PROVIDE FEEDBACK?
We would welcome your views on the options set out in this paper. Please use the response form in Annex 3 (pages 10-13).
If you have any enquiries concerning this consultation please contact:
uktradeinfo Customer Services
Tel: 03000 594250
email:
Please return any responses to uktradeinfo Customer Services by 8 January 2016.
Email:
Post:
uktradeinfo Customer Services
3rd Floor Alexander House
21, Victoria Avenue
Southend on Sea
SS99 1AA
Annex 1: Describing the display / aggregation options
UK Regional Breakdown.
Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics (NUTS) is a single hierarchical classification. It was created by the European Office for Statistics (Eurostat) and is used for statistical production across the EU. As it is hierarchical, if we use a detailed breakdown, we would be able to produce sub-totals within the same table. It is also the standard for regional GSS statistics.
For the UK the NUTS classifications are as follows:
· NUTS1 - Government Office Regions for England (9) plus Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland. Twelve regions in total.
· NUTS2 - 41 regions including 30 in England.
· NUTS3 -159 regions including 98 in England.
Full details are available here
Commodity Breakdown
The Standard International Trade Classification (SITC), is a hierarchical product classification of the United Nations - used for external trade statistics. The layers used here are as follows:
· SITC section (1-digit) – 10 groupings.
· SITC division (2-digit) – 68 groupings.
· SITC group (3-digit) – 265 groupings.
Full details available here.
Partner Country Breakdown
· Total – No Partner Country Breakdown. Import / Export totals only
· EU / Non-EU – Totals for EU Member States and Non-EU country aggregates only
Geographical groups – Internationally recognised aggregations of Partner Countries. Namely:
· European Union;
· Asia & Oceania;
· Eastern Europe (excl. EU);
· Latin America & Caribbean;
· Middle East & North Africa;
· North America;
· Sub-Saharan Africa;
· Western Europe excl. EU;
· Stores & Provisions (undefined area);
· Low Value Trade (undefined area).
Current RTS Breakdown - In the current methodology, data is available for a country only if the country’s total trade (Imports and Exports combined) exceeds one per cent of the total trade of that country’s World Region (based on a historical baseline). However, this suppression policy does not apply to EU countries where data for all member states is available.
The list of currently used partner countries can be found in Annex 3 (pages 21-26) of the published RTS methodology here.
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Annex 2: Summary of Proposed Display / Aggregation Options
Variable / Option 1 / Option 2 / Option 3 / Option 4Regional Breakdown / NUTS1 / NUTS1 / NUTS2 / NUTS3
Commodity Breakdown / SITC Division (2-digit) / SITC Group (3-digit) / SITC Section (1-digit) / SITC Section (1-digit)
Partner Country Breakdown / 93 individual countries - rest aggregated to geographical group / 8 geographical groups plus undefined / 8 geographical groups plus undefined / EU / Non-EU
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Annex 3: Response sheet
Question 1a: Is the RTS still essential to your business? If so, please outline the benefits of the RTS to your business / organisation.
Question 1b: Do you have an alternative data sources if the RTS is no longer published? Please explain these sources and their differences to the RTS
Question 2: Which ‘format’ option meets your business needs (the most), and why? (double click on box to check)
Option 1 – RTS (remain the same)
Option 2 – increased detail in commodity breakdown, greater aggregation in partner countries
Option 3 – increase detail in UK Regional breakdown, greater aggregation in partner country and commodity aggregation
Option 4 – Big increase in UK Regional breakdown – major aggregation in partner country and commodity aggregation
Please add any additional comments concerning the aggregation being proposed:
Question 3a: How often do you want the data tables published?
Quarterly
Annually – incorporating a quarterly breakdown
Question 3b: How often do you want the statistical commentary published?
Quarterly
Annually – incorporating a quarterly breakdown
Please add any additional comments concerning frequency:
The current RTS methodology is published here.
Question 4: If you have any further comments on this consultation or the RTS in general please write them here. In particular if you have comments on the following:
· Methodologies to reduce the effect of Head Office Distortion;
· Harmonising with the methodologies of other regional based GSS Statistics;
· The use of additional data sources to enhance business count information;
· Back-casting of time-series;
· Any specific partner countries that are not currently published;
· Options for reducing the size of the ‘Unknown’ region.
Please return any responses to uktradeinfo Customer Services by 5 January 2016.
Email:
Post:
uktradeinfo Customer Services
3rd Floor Alexander House
21, Victoria Avenue
Southend on Sea
SS99 1AA
Please check box if you do not wish to be contacted concerning your response
Please check box if you do not wish to be named in a list of respondents in the report that summarises responses. No individual responses or comments will be identifiable
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