Official Statistics

UK regional trade in goods statistics disaggregated by smaller geographical areas 2023: explanatory notes

Published 23 January 2025

Summary

HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) is responsible for collecting the UK’s international trade in goods data, which are published as two Accredited official statistics series - the UK overseas trade in goods statistics (OTS) and the UK regional trade in goods statistics (RTS). Accredited official statistics are called National Statistics in the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007. The RTS is published every three months (quarterly) showing trade at summary product and country level, split by UK regions and devolved administrations.

HMRC introduced the UK regional trade in goods statistics disaggregated by smaller Geographical Areas following requests from users for international trade in goods data at more detailed geographic levels. These are annual official statistics that subdivide the existing UK regional trade in goods statistics (RTS) into smaller UK geographic areas. This release reports on international trade in goods at International Territorial Levels (ITL) 1, 2 and 3 for 2023, and includes SITC 1 and partner country breakdowns at the ITL 2 level.

Official statistics

Following an ongoing assessment of methodologies and data sources, HMRC has removed the ‘in-development’ status from its UK regional trade in goods by smaller geographical area release. These statistics are now ‘Official statistics’.

Official statistics are statistics produced by Crown bodies and other organisations listed within an Official Statistics Order, on behalf of the UK government or devolved administrations. They provide a factual basis for assessment and decisions on economic, social and environmental issues at all levels of society.

These statistics are in line with the Government Statistical Service (GSS) Code of Practice for Statistics. These cover:

• Trustworthiness
• Quality
• Value

To do this we use the same processes used in the production of the UK overseas trade in goods statistics (OTS). The OTS are accredited official statistics published monthly. It was assessed for compliance with the Code of Practice in 2010.

UK regional trade in goods by smaller geographical area is compiled to serve the needs of many users, including:

• governments
• business communities
• compilers of other economic statistics
• various regional and international organisations
• local councils
• researchers
• the public

These statistics are also used for:

• press queries
• Parliamentary questions
• Freedom of Information requests
• other government departments who rely on HMRC’s data to inform evidence-based policies

The Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR) regulate our statistics. They set the standards in the Code of Practice. All producers of official statistics should meet these standards.

The UK overseas trade in goods statistics methodology and quality report is available for users. It shows how HMRC statistics meet the standards in the Code of Practice.

If you have any comments about how we meet these standards, you are welcome to contact us by emailing uktradeinfo@hmrc.gov.uk

Or you can contact OSR by emailing regulation@statistics.gov.uk or via the OSR website.

Tables in this release

The tables produced in this release are as follows.

• ITL1 by EU or non-EU flow totals, and import or export
• ITL2 by EU or non-EU, and import or export
• ITL2 by EU or non-EU, import or export, and SITC Section (1-digit)
• ITL2 by EU or non-EU, import or export, and Partner Country
• ITL3 by EU or non-EU, and import or export

Definitions

Geography

Following the UK’s withdrawal from the EU, a new UK-managed international statistical geography - ITL (International Territorial Levels) - was introduced from 1st January 2021, replacing the former NUTS classification. They align with international standards, enabling comparability both over time and internationally. To ensure continued alignment, the ITL’s were established to mirror the NUTS system.

More information on ITL can be found on the ONS website.

Partner country

This is the country the UK region exports the goods to or imports the goods from. Only the 99 pre-selected partner countries published in the RTS are included in this release. Data is available for a country 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). This does not apply to EU countries where data for all member states is available.

In addition, if a specific partner country cannot be found under a certain breakdown it may be due to the following:

• trade for that combination of variables is between 0 (no trade) and £499,999
• trade has been suppressed under our statistical disclosure policy

Standard International Trade Classification (SITC) Section

This is a broad classification system which classifies goods into ten categories. It forms part of the hierarchical SITC managed and maintained by the EU.

Allocation of trade to geographical areas

RTS data is compiled by merging trade data collected by HMRC with employment data from the Inter-Departmental Business Register (IDBR). A business’ trade is allocated to a region based on the proportion of its employees employed in that region.

We have replicated the employee allocation method for these statistics, so these figures will aggregate to the published RTS ITL1 figures. However, certain allocations used in the RTS for example, Below Threshold Trade Allocations and Fixed Link Energy allocations are not disaggregated any further than ITL1.

Data source changes

From 31 December 2020, the free movement of people, and goods and services between the UK and the European Union (EU) ended. This meant the way HMRC collected trade in goods statistics was revised.

UK exports to EU

Until 31 December 2020, UK to EU export statistics were collected via the Intrastat statistical survey, which required traders to declare the value and volume of commodities exported to EU member states within the relevant month of physical goods movement.

Starting from 1 January 2021, export statistics for goods moving from GB to EU are compiled directly from customs export declarations. These declarations are made according to the requirements of the Taxation (Cross Border Trade) Act. The customs declaration requirements are more complex than the single monthly aggregated Intrastat return and can result in differences between dates of declaration and actual movement of the goods out of the country.

The OTS compilation methodology relies upon the acceptance date of the customs export declaration for its inclusion within the relevant month of account, instead of the declared physical movement date used from the Intrastat survey.

Intrastat survey returns continue to be collected for goods exported from Northern Ireland (NI) to the EU, under the terms of the Northern Ireland Protocol and latterly the Windsor Framework.

Both the GB to EU customs export declaration data and Northern Ireland Intrastat export (dispatch) data are incorporated into the overall UK to EU export dataset. As a result of the changes and differences outlined, there is a break in the time series for published UK to EU export statistics from January 2021. Users are advised to note this change when making comparisons to previous quarters and years.

UK imports from EU

The Intrastat survey continued to operate in 2021 for all UK (GB and NI) imports (arrivals) from the EU, to mitigate the effects of staged customs controls, and to comply with the Northern Ireland Protocol.

However, starting from 1 January 2022, Intrastat only applied to movements of goods between Northern Ireland and the EU, under the terms of the Northern Ireland Protocol and latterly the Windsor Framework. Statistics on movements into GB from the EU have been compiled directly from customs import declarations.

Therefore, from January 2022, the UK’s goods imports from EU dataset incorporates two data sources: GB’s goods imports from EU data that is collected via customs declarations and NI’s goods imports from EU data, collected via Intrastat declarations.

In 2021, temporary Staged Customs Controls (SCC) allowed GB importers of non-controlled EU goods to defer submission of the full customs declaration for up to 175 days after the movement of goods. From 1 January 2022 to 30 January 2024, SCC was only available for use on non-controlled goods imported from Ireland. This may affect the accuracy of trade data for GB imports from Ireland and associated aggregations in 2023.

More information on the recent changes to trade in goods statistics can be found on the UK Trade Info website.

Statistical value threshold in Customs declarations

Customs declarations with commodity line values that fall under the statistical threshold of £873 (in value) and 1,000 kg (in net mass) are aggregated into ‘low value aggregates’. We do not receive business, product, or partner country information on these movements. As a result, we cannot assign this trade to a UK region, therefore the value is assigned to the Unallocated-Unknown region. This applies to goods exports from GB to EU countries from 2021, and imports to GB from EU countries from 2022. This is consistent with the RTS methods used for trade with non-EU countries, which are also sourced from customs declarations. As a result of this change, a value increase will be apparent for Unallocated-Unknown for EU flows from the dates specified.

Re-introduction of EU business counts

Due to the recent changes to data sources outlined, as well as changes to the VAT data source, a new method for EU business counts was introduced in the first quarter 2022 publication, which resulted in a break in series from previous RTS EU business counts. EU and total business counts from the 2021 data period onwards are therefore not comparable with RTS business counts published prior to 2021.

Prior to 2021, EU business counts were compiled from Intrastat declarations, while businesses trading below the Intrastat threshold were captured through VAT data. Businesses trading below the Intrastat threshold made up a small percentage of the total trade value but accounted for most of the businesses trading.

From January 2021, changes were made to the VAT data which means that only movements between Northern Ireland and EU countries are accurately recorded. Further, following EU Exit, trade between GB and EU countries is now reported through customs declarations instead of Intrastat. Customs declarations therefore became the main data source for GB exports to EU countries from January 2021, and GB imports from EU countries from January 2022.

As a result of the changes outlined, a new time series for EU business counts begins from the data period of the first quarter (January to March) 2021.

EU exporter counts from 2021 onwards include:

• GB exports to EU countries, via customs export declarations
• NI exports to EU countries, collected via Intrastat (above threshold) and VAT data (below threshold)

EU importer counts for 2021 include:

• UK imports from EU countries, collected via Intrastat
• NI imports from EU countries for those below the Intrastat threshold, via VAT data
• additional raw customs import declaration data to better capture GB imports from EU countries
• a caveat that throughout 2021, businesses could defer their EU imports declarations for up to 175 days, this may impact data quality

EU importer counts from 2022 onwards include:

• GB imports from EU countries, via customs import declarations
• NI imports from EU countries, collected via Intrastat (above threshold) and VAT data (below threshold)

Methodology

This release uses the same allocation methodology as the RTS which means that the main allocation method used for ITL1 in the RTS has been replicated for ITL2 and ITL3 in this release.

RTS data is compiled by merging trade data collected by HMRC with employment data from the Inter-Departmental Business Register (IDBR). A business’ trade is allocated to a region based on the proportion of its employees employed in that region. Where a trader is not matched with the IDBR, its trade is matched with Office for National Statistics postcode data to obtain the region in which the Head Office of the EORI / VAT registered business (importer or exporter) is based.

Not all trade can be assigned to one of the 9 English Regions, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Where appropriate, this is referred to in the tables as the ‘Unallocated Trade’, which is split into two groups.

‘Unallocated – Known’ is where we have virtually full details of the trade, but it is not appropriate to allocate it to a region. This includes:

• trade going into or out of the Channel Islands or the Isle of Man
• trade carried out by overseas based traders who have a VAT presence in the UK
• trade carried out by the UK Government
• parcel post trade that is dealt with centrally (trade collected via customs declarations)

‘Unallocated – Unknown’ is where not enough detail is known to allocate trade to a region. This includes:

• trade where business details submitted are invalid
• un-registered businesses (trade collected via customs declarations)
• private individuals (trade collected via customs declarations)
• low value trade (trade collected via customs declarations)

For specific energy goods only, trade is allocated to the region where the goods enter or leave the UK rather than the location / employment of the business doing the trade. This is because HMRC receives details of the trade in these goods directly from grid operators rather than the business. The goods concerned are Electrical energy, Natural Gas in a gaseous state and Crude Oil exported directly from offshore oil rigs. Crude Oil imported to the UK and exported from terminals is still allocated to the region of the business. Due to the information available we cannot provide this element at any geographical level below ITL1.

The business count is derived from trade declarations and is a count of businesses importing and exporting. Trade declared via Customs declarations will not include businesses whose trade is made up entirely of consignments below the statistical threshold (£873 and 1000 kg).

Where businesses have branches in multiple regions a business will be counted as one in every region they have employees. This represents the actual count of businesses in any region. However, it will mean the sum of the trader count for each region will be greater than that for the UK. This is what is called the ‘Whole Number Method’ in the RTS.

This release is categorised by partner country and Standard International Trade Classification, Rev.4. (SITC) at section level (1-digit). The SITC is a relatively broad classification of goods and is not as detailed as the commodity classification available in the OTS.

More information on the RTS and this release can be found in the RTS methodology document.

Related statistics

UK overseas trade in goods statistics

Data is taken primarily from Customs systems (for UK imports from and exports to non-EU trade and GB imports from and exports to EU countries) and the Intrastat survey (for Northern Ireland imports from and exports to EU countries). HMRC does not receive information in respect of goods that move wholly within the UK, nor in intangibles and services such as banking or tourism.

The UK overseas trade in goods statistics is published on a Special Trade basis, following changes to the methodology from May 2016 account onwards. The RTS is also published on this basis.

Trade in non-monetary gold (NMG) is included in OTS data, however this is excluded from RTS data, including this release. This is because the majority of NMG trade would be assigned to the London region and this would distort the RTS figures.

Balance of Payments

The Balance of Payments (BoP) figures published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) are calculated on a different basis to the OTS. Therefore, adjustments are made when producing BoP which means that the RTS and BoP are not comparable. The ONS website provides an overview of BoP and is where you can find their detailed monthly UK trade releases.

ONS subnational trade

The ONS produces the International trade in UK nations, regions and cities statistics which estimates the value of exports and imports of goods and services for 2021 for International Territory Levels 1, 2 and 3. The ONS release is produced on a BoP basis while RTS are compiled on an International Merchandise Trade Statistics (IMTS) basis. There are numerous different methodologies that contribute to the compilation of each set of statistics, but the main one is that RTS are compiled based on goods physically entering or leaving the UK, while the ONS subnational trade are produced on a change of economic ownership basis. Please note that the RTS disaggregated by smaller geographical area statistics exclude non-monetary gold.

Governance

For more information and guidance on the types of official statistics, please visit the Types of official statistics on the ONS website.

HMRC applies Statistical Disclosure Control (SDC) on all its statistical releases to protect our data providers. Therefore, requests for data relating to other geographies or greater detail are also subject to SDC so it is unlikely that these can be provided.

Now that the UK has left the EU, it is important that our statistics continue to be of high quality and are internationally comparable. All releases continue to be produced in accordance with the UK Statistics Authority’s Code of Practice for Statistics as well as internationally agreed statistical guidance and standards.

Contact:
e-mail uktradeinfo@hmrc.gov.uk

Next release: November 2025

If using specific facts contained in this release, please check the information is still current.