Accredited official statistics

UK overseas trade in goods statistics January 2025: methodology notes

Published 14 March 2025

Metadata 

Data behind this bulletin is available through the  website: 

• detailed Trade Statistics data at 8-digit commodity code level is available in our    
• aggregate OTS data is available in  

Data Sources 

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 had been collecting trade in goods statistics was revised.   

UK to EU exports   

For goods moving from 1 January 2021, GB to EU export statistics have been compiled directly from customs export declarations made according to the requirements of the Taxation (Cross Border Trade) Act. Intrastat survey returns, however, continued to be collected for goods exported from Northern Ireland to the EU, under the terms of the Northern Ireland Protocol.   

Both the GB to EU customs export declaration data and NI Intrastat export (dispatch) data were incorporated into the overall UK to EU export dataset.  

As a result of the changes and differences outlined above, there was a break in the timeseries for published UK to EU export statistics from January 2021. 

UK imports from EU   

UK imports from EU statistics were not impacted by any change in 2021. The Intrastat survey continued to operate for all UK (GB and NI) imports (arrivals) from the EU, to mitigate the effects of staging customs controls, and to comply with the Northern Ireland Protocol. 

However, from 1 January 2022, Intrastat only applied for movements of goods between Northern Ireland and the EU. Statistics on movements to GB from the EU have been compiled directly from customs import declarations. Both the EU to GB customs import declaration data and NI Intrastat import (arrivals) data were incorporated into the overall EU to UK import dataset. 

As a result of the changes and differences outlined above, there was a break in the timeseries for published EU to UK import statistics from January 2022. 

Northern Ireland trade   

Figures derived from Intrastat include the following:   

• estimates for businesses who have yet to submit detailed data on the trade they had with other EU member states this month
• estimates for businesses who do not have to submit detailed data on the trade they have with other EU member states

Estimates are included in all high-level totals including commodity (HS2) and country totals. 

Non-EU trade 

Non-EU trade statistics are compiled from customs declarations collected by the CHIEF (Customs Handling of Import and Export Freight) system. Declarations collected via the Customs Declarations Service (CDS) are included: for imports from August 2020 month of account; and for exports from December 2020 month of account onwards. Detailed trade information is presented according to the  nomenclature. 

Low value trade 

For trade in goods collected from custom declarations (UK trade with non-EU and GB trade with EU), imports and exports of an individual value of £873 or less are aggregated under SITC group 931 - 바카라 사이트˜Special transactions and commodities not classified according to kind바카라 사이트™, and classified to a single commodity code 바카라 사이트“ 99500000. This trade is not analysed either by commodity or country. Statistics for individual commodities are therefore deficient by these amounts.  

For Intrastat (NI-EU), transactions (that is, invoice lines) with a value of £175 or less can be aggregated and classified to a single commodity code (9950 0000).  

As a result, trade in some commodities may appear as nil trade, if all trade in that commodity falls in the low value aggregate.

For August 2024 exports, more trade than normal went into Low Value aggregate, instead of the comcode or country specific trade. This was a one-off occurrence to ensure export declarations that did not 바카라 사이트˜digitally바카라 사이트™ clear customs formalities were included in the released trade statistics.

Methodology 

The UK trade in goods statistics: methodologies covers: 

• data sources  
• classifications and definitions 
• quality assurance 
• publications and  
• governance 

It is a useful companion to the trade data, providing the definitions and methodologies on which the data are based. The most recent changes in the OTS methodology are covered in this paper.   

Gold 

HMRC collects data on gold. Gold may be held as a reserve asset by a monetary authority. If so, this gold is classified as monetary gold and is recorded in the UK National Accounts (compiled by the Office for National Statistics) but excluded from OTS.

Gold that is not held as a reserve asset by a monetary authority is classified as non-monetary gold (NMG) and is included in the OTS. This forms part of Precious metals and includes scrap and jewellery. 

Data relating to monthly import and export totals for January 2020 onwards with a breakdown of non-monetary gold is available in the . 

Relationship with other statistical publications  

The aggregate estimates here will differ slightly from those that are published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) as part of the , as the 2 sets of data are compiled to different sets of rules. The ONS website provides an overview of BoP, where you can find their detailed monthly . The BoP publication shows a high-level picture of UK trade-in-goods, whereas the OTS publication shows a detailed picture of the UK바카라 사이트™s trade-in-goods by commodity and partner country.   

Accredited official statistics publication 

The UK overseas trade in goods statistics (OTS) were independently reviewed by the Office for Statistics Regulation in October 2010 with publication of the  in February 2011. They comply with the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics and should be labelled 바카라 사이트˜accredited official statistics바카라 사이트™.  are called National Statistics in the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007.  

HM Revenue & Customs released these latest statistics on overseas trade with countries on 14 March 2025 under arrangements set out in the .  

This release includes the first provisional estimates of trade in goods between the UK and both countries of the EU and those outside the EU for January 2025. At the same time revisions for all previously published non-EU and EU data for 2024 are also being released in line with the HM Revenue & Customs Policy on Revisions. 

The next three publications are due for release on the following days: 

Month of Account	First release date
February 2025	11 April 2025	Â
March 2025	15 May 2025	Â
April 2025	12 June 2025	Â

Our statistical practice is regulated by the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR). 

OSR sets the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the  that all producers of official statistics should adhere to.  

You are welcome to contact us directly with any comments about how we meet these standards by emailing uktradeinfo@hmrc.gov.uk. 

Alternatively, you can contact OSR by emailing regulation@statistics.gov.uk or via the .