WIREDGOV

In September the Office for National Statistics (ONS) asked the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR) to review its recent revisions to GDP. Today the review has been published, with Ed Humpherson, OSR Director General for Regulation, finding that '...ONS's approach to revisions is appropriate and well managed and our overall conclusion is that the more extreme criticisms that ONS received are misplaced.' 

Following the publication of the UK's GDP revisions, several other European countries have also announced significant revisions to their earlier estimates of a similar size and direction. 

'We are always clear that our headline figures are estimates, but we will redouble our efforts to communicate additional uncertainty in our data, where they exist" says Deputy National Statistician Mike Keoghan in his response to the OSR this morning 'Further improvements in this regard will be made to the upcoming quarterly GDP releases over the next six months.'  

The ONS also remains committed to further expediting the GDP production process. 

This includes access to better data on output in health and education, as well as the use of VAT information to vastly increase our picture of smaller businesses. 

We are also developing new sources for measuring changes in the costs facing businesses more quickly, as well as investigating credit card data to better monitor changes in consumer spending habits and the use of RTI data on household incomes. 

The exchange of letters between Ed Humpherson and Mike Keoghan is here: https://www.ons.gov.uk/news/statementsandletters/exchangeoflettersbetweenonsandosrfollowingthepublicationoftheosrsrecentreviewintogdprevisions 

The full OSR report into recent GDP revisions is here: https://osr.statisticsauthority.gov.uk/?p=46191&post_type=publication&preview=1&_ppp=74955643f5