Revenue Outturn multi-year data set guidance
Updated 3 December 2024
Applies to England
© Crown copyright 2024
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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/local-authority-revenue-expenditure-and-financing-england-revenue-outturn-multi-year-data-set/revenue-outturn-multi-year-data-set-guidance
Introduction
This data set contains Revenue Outturn data in a CSV format for the financial years 2017-2018 to 2023-2024. This follows a recommendation from the 2021 Review of Local Government Finance Statistics to publish local government finance tables in a machine-readable format with a time series, in order to improve the presentation and accessibility of statistics. This is the first release of Revenue Outturn data in a multi-year format.
Resources
The following files can be downloaded from this page:
- CSV in a wide format. Every row is data relating to one local authority in one year. The data are presented in £ thousands, and are in cash terms (no adjustment for inflation).
- A workbook containing metadata and instructions on how to use the dataset.
The metadata workbook includes:
- A release log of the data set with details of updates, with the publication date for the data of each of the years.
- A data dictionary of all the data items.
- Notes on data points to give useful additional or contextual information.
- A catalogue of local authorities which are included in the dataset.
- Information about class and England totals which are included in the dataset.
In addition to the metadata, further information about the Revenue Outturn data collection is available at General fund revenue account outturn. The specific guidance complements the data dictionary by providing the full definitions of each data item.
Future updates: It is intended that updates of these data will be published simultaneously or shortly after the publication of new or updated Revenue Outturn data, whose publication dates are themselves pre-announced in the statistics release calendar.
Using the dataset
England and class totals
This data file includes rows for totals for England and for each Local Authority Class (e.g. Metropolitan District, Combined Authority, etc). These rows should be used, instead of summing together local authority data if totals are needed. This is because in some periods we may not have returns from all authorities. Where this occurs, the England and class totals are grossed up to reflect what the data could be expected to be, had returns been received by all authorities. Therefore, this is likely to produce a more reliable timeseries than summing together the data of local authorities, as some local authorities may have not yet submitted their data.
Metadata – data dictionary
The timeseries CSV contains the more than 2,000 data items of the Revenue Outturn data return. Users are advised to use the accompanying metadata file to identify the data items in which they are interested. The Revenue Outturn data collection form is available at General fund revenue account outturn; this can also be helpful in understanding the structure of the data items.
The data dictionary worksheet within the metadata workbook provides a full list of all data items collected in any or all of the years that the data set covers. A description is provided for each data item. Table 1 provides lists and describes the fields included in the metadata worksheet.
Table 1: Columns in the metadata data items file and their description
| Column name | Description |
|---|---|
| Data item name | A unique name which identifies each data item. |
| Data type | The data type of the column. |
| Description | A description of the data item |
| Start date | The date of the first statistical release where data was collected for that data item. |
| End date | The date of the last statistical release where data was collected for that data item. |
| Form name | The section of the RO form from which the data item is sourced. |
| Row number | The row and column numbers can be used as a composite key for data items. The row number representing a service line can be useful for finding particular service lines, since the row number is displayed in the published RO local authority data workbooks. |
| Column number | The column number represents a breakdown of expenditure in a single service line, for instance in cases where local authorities report expenditure and income separately, which are then used to calculate net current expenditure. |
| Notes | Details of the changes to data items, for example if it was merged or split from another data item. |
Users who want to examine high level trends could consider the following aggregates. It is often preferable to use the net current expenditure measure, since other categories of expenditure (employees, running expenses and total) may not always be comparable. These categories are defined in the Revenue Outturn general guidance.
Table 2: Key service lines of interest and their names
| Service line | Data item name | |
|---|---|---|
| Education services (net current expenditure) | RS_edu_net_exp | |
| Highways and transport services (net current expenditure) | RS_trans_net_exp | |
| Children Social Care (net current expenditure) | RS_csc_net_exp | |
| Adult Social Care (net current expenditure) | RS_asc_net_exp | |
| Public Health (net current expenditure) | RS_phs_net_exp | |
| Housing services (GFRA only) (net current expenditure) | RS_hous_net_exp | |
| Cultural and related services (net current expenditure) | RS_cul_net_exp | |
| Environmental and regulatory services (net current expenditure) | RS_env_net_exp | |
| Planning and development services (net current expenditure) | RS_plan_net_exp | |
| Police services (net current expenditure) | RS_pol_net_exp | |
| Fire and rescue services (net current expenditure) | RS_frs_net_exp | |
| Central services (net current expenditure) | RS_cen_net_exp | |
| Other services (net current expenditure) | RS_oth_net_exp | |
| Total Service Expenditure | RS_totsx_net_exp |
Metadata – local authorities
The local authorities worksheet within the metadata workbook contains a full list of all local authorities which are required to submit these data. Additionally, class and region data for each local authority is provided in the respective columns. Table 3 lists and describes the fields included in this worksheet and an explanation of them. It shows which authorities were required to report these data in any given year. It may also be possible to use the information contained in the notes column to identify mergers and extend their timeseries further.
Table 3: Columns in the meta data local authorities file and their description
| Column name | Description |
|---|---|
| ONS_Code | A unique identifier for each local authority. The ONS code is used by many other organisations in wide-ranging published data, so it is normally preferable to use it where it is available. |
| LA_LGF_Code | A unique identifier for each local authority. The LGF code are created since there are occasions when a code is needed before the ONS code has been issued. |
| LA_Name | Name of the local authority. |
| Class | Class of local authority. |
| Subclass | The subclass of the local authority. |
| Region | Region of the UK in which the local authority is located. |
| Start date | The earliest period for which Revenue Outturn data should exist in this data set for each authority. |
| End date | The latest period for which Revenue Outturn data should exist in this data set for each authority. |
| Notes | Details of mergers and other changes to remit of local authorities. |