1. Summary overview of Quality Information for
Overseas Trade Statistics (OTS) and
Regional Trade Statistics (RTS)
HMRC Trade Statistics
Version No: Date:16/10/2012

2. Quality Assurance
Quality assurance of collected data is a significant part of the compilation process prior to publication of the Overseas Trade Statistics (OTS) & Regional Trade Statistics (RTS).
Post-publication quality assurance is also conducted where potential anomalies are identified.
The Quality Assurance web page gives information on how data users can assess the quality of published data

3. What is Quality
The six output quality dimensions of the European Statistical System (ESS) are defined in EU Legislation
For international trade statistics, there are more specific indicators of quality as detailed in the Eurostat requirements (Doc MET 1000) – Quality items and requirements for reference year 2009
The quality of the OTS are assessed against these indicators in line with EU legislation

4. Quality report HMRC Trade Statistics produces an annual
Overseas Trade Statistics and Regional Trade
Statistics Quality Report, based on the
Government Statistical Service (GSS) guidelines.
See the latest report.

5. How Eurostat assessed us
Eurostat carry out an annual quality assessment based on quality indicators and requirements agreed beforehand with the national authorities
This is the latest Eurostat assessment of the UK international trade data
Eurostat also produce a Summary Quality Report for all EU Member States, and an annual EU Quality Report
In addition, Eurostat visits Member States to discuss methodologies on data production . The final report relates to the most recent visit to the UK.

6. How the ONS assess us
The Balance of Payments (BoP) published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) uses OTS data
The ONS quality requirement is that at least 92% of the value of the first detailed EU trade output should come from business declarations. The rest of the data provided is estimated
An assessment of this quality requirement is shown in the graph

7. Adherence to EU Legislation
How the OTS compiles with EU legislation
governing its compilation can be found in this
linked summary

8. Asymmetries
Asymmetries are the differences between the trade statistics of partner countries. Asymmetries are investigated by Member States for internal Quality Assurance. See the link for a detailed overview of asymmetries
The latest reconciliation of asymmetries in trade-in-goods statistics published by UK and other European Union (EU) Member States was published in July 2012

9. To find out more information?
For more details on the Quality Information published by HMRC Trade Statistics, go to the Quality Assurance web page and related links.
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