Accredited official statistics

Preface

Updated 21 December 2023

Applies to England

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Background

Data on the income of farm businesses are used in conjunction with other agricultural sector information to help inform policy decisions and to help monitor and evaluate current policies relating to agriculture in England. The data also informs wider research into the economic performance of the agricultural industry and are used by the industry for benchmarking purposes.

This release provides further detail behind the income results published on 16 November 2023 (updated 14 December 2023). Forecasts of income by farm type for the year ending February 2024 and covering the 2023 harvest will be published in March 2024. These can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/farm-business-survey.

Contact details

Responsible statistician: Alison Wray

For public enquiries:

Telephone: 0208 026 6119
Email: fbs.queries@defra.gov.uk

Media queries

For media queries between 9am and 6pm on weekdays:

Telephone: 0330 041 6560
Email: newsdesk@defra.gov.uk

National Statistics Status

Accredited official statistics are called National Statistics in the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007. An explanation can be found on the Office for Statistics Regulation website. Our statistical practice is regulated by the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR). OSR sets the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics that all producers of official statistics should adhere to.

These accredited official statistics were independently reviewed by the Office for Statistics Regulation in January 2014. They comply with the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics and should be labelled ‘accredited official statistics’.

You are welcome to contact us directly with any comments about how we meet these standards (see contact details above). Alternatively, you can contact OSR by emailing regulation@statistics.gov.uk or via the OSR website.

Since the latest review by the Office for Statistics Regulation, we have continued to comply with the Code of Practice for Statistics, and have made the following improvements:

• Reviewed and improved data presentation to better meet accessibility guidelines.

• Automated production of the statistics using Reproducible Analytical Pipelines (RAP).

• Reviewed and improved accompanying commentary.

User engagement

As part of our ongoing commitment to compliance with the Code of Practice for Official Statistics we wish to strengthen our engagement with users of these statistics and better understand the use made of them and the types of decisions that they inform. Consequently, we invite users to make contact to advise us of the use they do, or might, make of these statistics, and what their wishes are in terms of engagement. Feedback on this statistical release and enquiries about these statistics are also welcome.

Content of the document

The results presented here provide further detail behind the Farm Business Income results published on 16 November 2023 (updated 14 December 2023). They are sourced from the 2022/23 Farm Business Survey which covers the 2022 harvest and includes the 2022 Basic Payment. The results include a more in depth analysis of the outputs and costs within each farm type (the farm type classification indicates the predominant activity on the farm).

Detailed tables can be found on gov.uk in the Farm Accounts in England dataset. The tables present farm incomes, outputs and costs for farm types and also farm sizes, regions and economic performance groups along with enterprise level gross margins, balance sheet data and flow of funds statements.

The release also includes analysis of diversified activities on farms.

In simple terms, Farm Business Income is the output generated by the farm business minus total farm costs. Full details of the definitions used within the Farm Business Survey, including Farm Business Income, can be found on the technical notes and guidance page.

Chapter 1: Key Events
Chapter 2: Key Results and Overview Across All Farms in England
Chapter 3: Cropping Farms
Chapter 4: Livestock Farms
Chapter 5: Diversification
Survey Details and Technical Notes

These points apply throughout:

1. The England Farm Business Survey is the source for all data presented in tables and charts unless otherwise stated.

2. Where dataset table numbers are referred to in the text, these can be found within the dataset spreadsheets at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/farm-accounts-in-england-data-sets.

3. All figures relate to England and cover a March to February fiscal year, with the most recent year shown ending in February 2023. Fiscal years are shown in YYYY/YY format, for example, the period of 1 March 2022 to 28 February 2023 is shown as 2022/23. To ensure consistency in harvest/crop year and commonality of subsidies within any one FBS year, only farms which have their accounting year ending between 31 December and 30 April are included in the survey. Aggregate results are presented in terms of an accounting year ending on the last day of February, which is the approximate average of all farms in the Farm Business Survey.

4. Values are expressed as either current or as a real term value:
   - the current (or nominal) value is the value expressed in historical monetary terms
   - the real term value is the current value adjusted to take account of inflation - all percentage changes are based on current (or nominal) prices, unless otherwise stated

Availability of results

Detailed tables covering income, outputs and costs for each farm type can be found on the Farm Accounts in England landing page.

Other results from the Farm Business Survey can be found in the Farm Business Survey statistics collection

All Defra statistical notices can be viewed on the Defra statistics page

Farm Accounts in England for 2023/24 is expected to be published in December 2024. The definitive publication date will be announced on the research and statistics page.