HM Revenue & Customs (National): Latest UK Regional Trade Estimates

UK Regional Trade in Goods estimates are released today, for the first quarter 2011.

Exports

* The total value of UK exports for the 12 months ending March 2011 was £273,081m, an increase of £40,813m (17.6 per cent) compared to the 12 months ending March 2010. 

* During the same period the total value of exports for England rose by 16.5 per cent to £196,355m. Exports from Wales rose by 33.8 per cent to £12,598m, exports from Scotland rose by 4.8 per cent to £15,494m, and exports from Northern Ireland rose by 8.7 per cent to £5,472m. However, the value of exports unable to be allocated to a region rose by 25.2 per cent to £43,161m (see note 5). This accounts for 15.8 per cent of the total UK export trade.

* Within England, the South East had the largest total value of exports of £43,255m for the 12 months ending March 2011. The South West had the smallest total value of exports of £11,468m. 

* The largest percentage change in the English regions for this period was for the North East region which increased by 29.5 per cent to £12,776m. The North West region had the smallest change, with an increase in exports of 8.0 per cent to £25,410m. All regions within England saw an increase in exports.

* The number of exporters in the UK for Quarter 1 2011, compared with the same quarter last year, increased by 1.4 per cent to 48,168. Northern Ireland had the largest percentage change with a decrease of 4.9 per cent to 1,280. All other regions or countries showed a positive increase in the number of exporters, ranging from 0.3 per cent in the South East to 4.4 per cent in the North East.

Imports

* The total value of UK imports for the 12 months ending March 2011 was £371,062m, an increase of £55,090m (17.4 per cent) compared to the 12 months ending March 2010. 

* During the same period the total value of imports for England rose by 16.8 per cent to £295,935m. Imports to Wales rose by 15.0 per cent to £6,843m, imports to Scotland rose by 9.6 per cent to £11,688m and imports to Northern Ireland rose by 10.4 per cent to £5,335m. However, the value of imports unable to be allocated to a region rose by 24.6 per cent to £51,262m (see note 5). This accounts for 13.8 per cent of the total UK import trade.

* Within England, the South East has the largest total value of imports of £77,954m. The smallest total value for imports is in the North East of £10,179m. 

* The largest percentage change for the English regions this period was for the North East region which increased by 39.5 per cent to £10,179m. The smallest change was for the North West region which saw an increase of 11.0 per cent in imports to £25,077m. All regions in the UK saw an increase in imports.

* The number of importers in the UK for Quarter 1 2011 compared with the same quarter last year, decreased by 4.6 per cent to 65,233. Northern Ireland had the largest percentage decrease of 12.7 per cent to 1,398. All other regions or countries also showed a decrease in the number of importers, ranging from a decrease of 2.3 per cent in the East of England to a decrease of 6.2 per cent in the North East.

Notes for editors

1. The latest statistics on Regional Trade were released on 9 June 2011 by HM Revenue & Customs under arrangements set out in the Code of Practice for Official Statistics. This release includes the first provisional estimates of trade-in-goods for Quarter 1 2011. At the same time revisions for all previously published regional data for 2010 are also being released. HMRC are also releasing revisions to regional data for 2008. This is a result of the revisions made to Overseas Trade Statistics which were announced here. Regional data for 2009 will be revised in the next Regional Trade Statistics release.

2. The News Release uses the EU27 country group as from Quarter one, 2007, including Bulgaria and Romania. 

3. Data is taken primarily from Customs systems (for non-EU trade) and the Intrastat survey (for EU trade). 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. Trade is mainly allocated to a region by the postcode associated with a company’s VAT registration. 

4. Some adjustments have been necessary in the production of export statistics by region to ensure manufacturing that takes place at branch premises is properly allocated to the region where the branch is situated. These adjustments have been updated in Quarter 1 2011 and applied to 2010 and 2011 data. However, adjustments are not made to import statistics and therefore, in some cases, trade has been allocated to the region where the head office is situated.

5. Not all trade can be assigned to one of the 9 English Government Office Regions, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. This is referred to in the tables as the ‘Unknown region’ and includes: 

* Trade carried out by persons or entities which cannot be matched to a region.
* Low Value Trade and estimates made for EU trade below the Intrastat threshold. 
* Goods within classification codes that have changed since the previous year are not assigned to a region but are included within Unknown region for completeness. 
* Data relating to Natural Gas and Electricity direct from pipeline and grid operators.

More information can be found in the OTS and RTS methodology document. 
https://www.uktradeinfo.com/pagecontent/documents/GSSMethodspaperv4.pdf 
https://www.uktradeinfo.com/pagecontent/RTSdocuments/rtsMethodsrevision2007v3.pdf 

6. The RTS does not include estimates for non-response or estimates for the missing EU Imports associated with Missing Trader Intra-Community VAT Fraud (MTIC Fraud).

7. In 2009 a change took place to the Customs administrative data source used in the compilation of the RTS. More detail on this can be found athttps://www.uktradeinfo.com/pagecontent/downloads/RTS_EORI_web.pdf 
The impact of the change is being monitored and reviewed by the Trade Statistics Unit. 

8. Aggregated tables are produced to allow time series analysis; these tables are provided in a separate document released in conjunction with this News Release. 

9. The Regional Trade in Goods figures are National Statistics. National Statistics are produced to high professional standards set out in the Code of Practice for Official Statistics. They undergo regular quality assurance reviews to ensure they meet customer needs. The recent Trade Statistics Quality report can be found here
https://www.uktradeinfo.com/pagecontent/documents/Quality_Report_2010.pdf They are produced free from any political interference. 

10. The RTS has recently been reviewed as part of an assessment made of Overseas Trade Statistics by the UK Statistics Authority. The report of that assessment can be found athttp://www.statisticsauthority.gov.uk/assessment/assessment/assessment-reports/assessment-report-93---uk-trade-in-goods.pdf 

11. The next release will be published on 8 September 2011. This will include revised data for 2010 and 2011 plus a set of new regional trade statistics figures for the second quarter 2011. Revisions to 2009 regional data will also be included as a result of revisions made to the Overseas Trade Statistics.

For further information please contact:

Statistical Contact: Rafael Mastrangelo 
uktradeinfo Customer Services,
HM Revenue & Customs: Trade Statistics
3rd Floor Central,
Alexander House,
21 Victoria Avenue,
Southend-on-Sea,
SS99 1AA
Telephone: 01702 367485
E-mail: uktradeinfo@hmrc.gsi.gov.uk,
Fax: 01702 366596

© Crown copyright 2011.

Information about HM Revenue & Customs can be found on our website: www.hmrc.gov.uk For this news release and other information visit www.uktradeinfo.com for authoritative and up to date information on UK Trade.

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

12. To view the documents associaated with this release, please use the link below:
http://nds.coi.gov.uk/Content/Detail.aspx?ReleaseID=419853&NewsAreaID=2&ClientID=257

13. Follow HMRC on Twitter @HMRCgovuk

NAT 51/11

Issued by HM Revenue & Customs Press Office
Press enquiries only please contact:

Contacts

 NDS Enquiries 
Phone: For enquiries please contact the issuing dept 
ndsenquiries@coi.gsi.gov.uk