1. HMRC - UK Overseas Trade Statistics: The User Story January 2017

2. HMRC - UK Overseas Trade Statistics: The User Story January 2017 1

3. Section 1: Who are the users?
Users of the Overseas Trade Statistics (OTS), Regional Trade Statistics (RTS) and associated data produced by HMRC can be viewed as 3 main groups:
Group 1 - Government Stakeholders
Group 2 - Commercial and Academic Users
Group 3 - Website Users and Casual Enquirers
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HMRC - UK Overseas Trade Statistics: The User Story January

4. Group 1 - Government Stakeholders
Users of the Overseas Trade Statistics (OTS), Regional Trade Statistics (RTS) and associated data produced by HMRC can be viewed as 3 main groups:
Group 1 - Government Stakeholders
Office for National Statistics (ONS)
European Commission (Eurostat)
Dept. for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS)
Org. for Economic Co-operation & Development (OECD)
United Nations (UN)
Scottish and Welsh Governments
Dept. for International Trade (DIT)
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Dept. for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA)
Dept. for Transport
HM Revenue & Customs internal customers
Group 2 - Commercial and Academic Users
Group 3 - Website Users and Casual Enquirers
HMRC - UK Overseas Trade Statistics: The User Story January

5. Group 1 - Government Stakeholders
Users of the Overseas Trade Statistics (OTS), Regional Trade Statistics (RTS) and associated data produced by HMRC can be viewed as 3 main groups:
Group 1 - Government Stakeholders
Group 2 - Commercial and Academic Users
This group of users includes…
Data Retailers
Trade Associations
Freight Operators
Universities and Researchers
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Group 3 - Website Users and Casual Enquirers
HMRC - UK Overseas Trade Statistics: The User Story January

6. Group 1 - Government Stakeholders
Users of the Overseas Trade Statistics (OTS), Regional Trade Statistics (RTS) and associated data produced by HMRC can be viewed as 3 main groups:
Group 1 - Government Stakeholders
Group 2 - Commercial and Academic Users
Group 3 - Website Users and Casual Enquirers
Website users (2016)
Usage data indicates from 1 January to 31 December 2016:
374,016 unique visitors
282,909 returning visitors
365,053 new visitors
60,975 data tables built using our interactive data tool
Casual Enquiriers (2016)
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- Government Departments
- Financial
- Importers / Exporters
- Press
- Researchers
- Academics
- General Public
HMRC - UK Overseas Trade Statistics: The User Story January

7. Section 2: How is the data used?
The uses of Trade Statistics include:
Development of national, regional and international trade policy, including trade negotiations, monitoring trade agreements and settling trade disputes
Establishing general economic policy (including. policies on sustainable development, Fiscal/ Monetary/Structural and Sectoral matters and addressing issues of environmental and health concerns)
Market analysis to find supply sources of foreign markets and, in combination with structural business statistics, to determine traders’ economic characteristics
Infrastructure planning (harbours, airports, roads etc.)
Compilation of the import component of the various price indexes (e.g. cost-of-living indices);
Input and forecasting into the framework of the system of National Accounts and Balance of Payments
Establishing supply balances to monitor commodity markets (in areas such as Agriculture and Energy in particular)
Compilation of transport statistics
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Source: The United Nations ‘International Merchandise Trade Statistics (IMTS): Concepts and Definitions 2010’
HMRC - UK Overseas Trade Statistics: The User Story January

8. How specified users make use of Trade Statistics:
uktradeinfo.com receives 31,000 unique visits each month from government, financial, import / export, press, research, academic and general public sectors. Commercial uses of the data have included monitoring the UK for import penetration, identifying future overseas markets, and assessing lending and investment risk.
BEIS is the lead department for trade policy and key stakeholders for the OTS and RTS, of which it is the main Government user. The data contributes to BEIS monitoring trade and trade policy for the UK, the UK Government Office Regions and devolved administrations. BEIS also has its own trade publications under various classifications, to which HMRC data contributes. In addition, BEIS receives trade data specific to fuels and related commodity codes, using them to verify data received from trade sources for policy monitoring purposes. BEIS also contributes to HMRC data quality assurance.
ONS use the trade data in the preparation of the UK’s Balance of Payment figures. The statistics are regarded as an important economic indicator of the performance of the UK, and are of interest to HM Treasury, the Bank of England and House of Commons. Export data is used as an indicator of the state of health of the UK manufacturing industry UN publishes trade statistics from approx. 200 countries (including the UK), on its Commodity Trade Statistics Database.
OECD compares worldwide trade performance.
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HMRC - UK Overseas Trade Statistics: The User Story January

9. How specified users make use of Trade Statistics (cont.):
Eurostat (the EU Statistical Office) and the European Central Bank use HMRC data as an economic indicator. Eurostat publishes EU trade balance indicators, and makes detailed EU Member States’ data available on the ‘Comext’ website.
Data Retailers use a variety of sources to provide commercial data services to a wide range of customers.
Trade associations make industry specific trade data available to their members to monitor markets and performance.
Academics use trend data to contribute to trade related research papers.
Journalists identify ‘high-interest’ trade performance to feed current affairs news stories.
The Welsh Government (WAG) use RTS data as a component within its own trade bulletin, specifically highlighting Welsh exports.
DEFRA uses trade in food, drink and animal feed data to inform their trade policy, Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), and animal health and welfare planning and decision making. The data are also a component of DEFRA’s main statistical document, ‘Agriculture in the UK’, which informs industry members and meets requirements under the Agriculture Act 1993.
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HMRC - UK Overseas Trade Statistics: The User Story January

10. uktradeinfo.com: Site Metrics on Data Usage and Enquiries
In general, in 2016:
54,000 user sessions per month
16,122 subscribers to Alert Service
63,846 Importers Details searches per month
12,209 Exporters details searches per month (based on 9 months data)
43.7% return visits
75.2% of visits from UK
Top 5 visits from US, Germany, China, Russia and France (excluding UK)
In a quarter:
37,213 visits to Build Your Own Tables
103,633 visits to OTS Latest Release
7, visits to RTS Latest Release
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In 2016 uktradeinfo Customer Services addressed approximately 13,000 enquiries. 5,700 of these related to published trade data, of which 380 resulted in the production of bespoke data, detailed data analysis or quality investigation.
HMRC - UK Overseas Trade Statistics: The User Story January

11. Section 3: How does HMRC engage with users?
Statistical Client Manager Network
Working Groups
A dedicated Trade Statistics Customer Services team
An Alert Service & News area
Data & Service Feedback Templates
User Consultations
Surveys & Reviews
Joint Customs Consultative Committee
HMRC Complaints procedure
Trade Challenge process
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The above channels are explained in the following slides.
HMRC - UK Overseas Trade Statistics: The User Story January

12. (1) Trade Statistics Client Management Network
Summary of User Engagement Channels
(1) Trade Statistics Client Management Network
Key users of UK trade data are allocated a dedicated Client Manager from within the statistical staff of HMRC’s Trade Statistics unit. The Client Manager manages the relationship between the customer and Trade Statistics unit teams
(2) Working Groups
HMRC staff are actively involved in a number of stakeholder working groups, such as:
Eurostat - Intrastat / Extrastat Committees and Working Groups (representing the UK view in EU statistical policy developments)
ONS Balance of Payments (BoP) Liaison (working with the ONS to ensure appropriate trade input to the UK BoP figures)
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(3) Customer Service Team Support
HMRC provides a Customer Services team to support general users of trade data.
They assist users of uktradeinfo.com to:
Find and access data
Build data tables
Utilise the products and services provided.
HMRC - UK Overseas Trade Statistics: The User Story January

13. Summary of User Engagement Channels (continued)
(4) Alert Service
HMRC operates a free Alert Service from the uktradeinfo website:
The Alert Service is a key channel for
promoting data publication,
issuing Intrastat declaration reminders
encouraging input to User Consultations, Surveys and Reviews
DEFRA, ONS, BEIS and European Commission content
(5) Data & Service Feedback Templates
uktradeinfo.com has a page feedback facility on the bottom of most pages, and a site and service feedback form.
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(6) User Consultation, Surveys and Reviews
HMRC Trade Statistics unit consults data users both formally and informally via consultations, surveys and reviews, details of which will be advertised through our News area.
HMRC - UK Overseas Trade Statistics: The User Story January

14. (8) Joint Customs Consultative Committee (JCCC)
Summary of User Engagement Channels (continued)
(8) Joint Customs Consultative Committee (JCCC)
Representatives of the Trade Statistics unit and Customs personnel consult each other on matters of common interest, ensuring their respective stakeholders contribute to a cohesive UK view.
(9) HMRC Complaints Procedure
HMRC has a single corporate complaints procedure that it encourages customers to use if they have been unable to resolve their issue with the office they normally deal with.
HMRC’s complaints procedure can be viewed in detail on the Complain to HM Revenue and Customs page on the GOV.UK website.
Any complaints received are fully investigated and may also be referred to the National Statistician’s Office for assurance regarding statistical integrity.
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HMRC - UK Overseas Trade Statistics: The User Story January

15. (10) Trade Statistics Trade Challenge Process
Summary of User Engagement Channels (continued)
(10) Trade Statistics Trade Challenge Process
HMRC have an established procedure for users to report and challenge published trade data that they believe to contain anomalies. Information regarding the specific data elements and why they are believed to be wrong, is sent to the Customer Service team who will arrange for an investigation (subject to available resource).
In 2016 HMRC received a total of 82 trade challenges. Due to the nature of the challenges i.e. querying the commodity code, country, value, net mass, volume or a combination of any of these fields, the investigations conducted necessitated the checking of thousands of individual lines of data.
Amendment of data was conducted in line with the OTS Revisions Policy.
A list of revisions can be found on the suppression and revisions page.
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HMRC - UK Overseas Trade Statistics: The User Story January