Research and analysis

DSIT Official Statistics Work Update 2026/27

Updated 12 May 2026

1. Introduction 

This update sets out a high-level overview of plans for official statistics produced by the Department for Science Innovation and Technology (DSIT) in 2026/27. This includes plans for releases that are not currently official statistics but which may become official statistics in the future. 

This page does not include official statistics published by DSIT’s agencies and arms length bodies. The GOV.UK release calendar shows the planned publication dates of all statistical releases by DSIT and our agencies and public bodies.   

For any general enquires related to our statistics, please contact statistics@dsit.gov.uk. Inboxes for specific releases are provided under the corresponding sections.

2. DSIT official statistics 

We will continue to produce Official Statistics in accordance with the guidance provided by the UK Statistics Authority’s Code of Practice for Statistics. Details on how we do this are set out as part of our DSIT compliance with official statistics documents. These compliance documents have been reviewed and revised or developed in line with version 3.0 of the Code of Practice.

The remainder of this update provides further information on plans associated with specific DSIT publications.

3. Building Digital UK (BDUK) delivery performance statistics 

Since July 2025 new quarterly and annual official statistics publications have reported how many UK premises have received a gigabit‑capable broadband connection as a result of BDUK subsidy. The figures include premises that received gigabit‑capable coverage from 2012 onwards (presented in the publication as ‘before 2021’) up to the latest published quarter. Revised figures for earlier periods are also included. 

The quarterly publication provides a brief bulletin of high‑level statistics, supported by accompanying data tables. This covers the delivery by nation/region, premises type (business/residential) and type of intervention. 

The annual publication provides a more comprehensive bulletin, including charts and additional breakdowns presented in extended data tables expanding the local area coverage including Local Authority District, Parliamentary Constituency and urban/rural classification. 

BDUK has improved its workflow processes, enabling quarterly delivery to be reported with a shorter lag.  

Going forward, each publication will include data for a single new quarter, alongside cumulative totals. A full quarterly timeseries will be constructed back to April 2024 and to better compare time series trends.

4. Bioscience and Health Technology Sector Statistics (BaHTSS) 

In October 2025, estimates of the size and composition of the UK life sciences sector for 2023/24 were published through the latest BaHTSS release. The BaHTSS statistics are published by the Office for Life Sciences (OLS) which is part of DSIT, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) and the Department for Business and Trade (DBT). 

The 2023/24 estimates were derived from a new data collection process that aims to find a broader selection of companies operating in the life sciences sector. Prior to 2023/24, companies were identified manually through a series of data partners but in 2023/24 an additional process was introduced using automated identification based on the descriptive text content of company websites. 

Due to the methodology change, the statistics were rebadged as ‘official statistics in development’. This is primarily for OLS to explore quality improvements and to gather user feedback on the new approach. The methodology change also impacted the time series and the level of granularity reported on for companies in the sector. The key impacts are listed below along with OLS’s commitments to improvement in these areas: 

• comparability to past data. Data for 2023/24 is not directly comparable to past estimates published within previous publications. In the next BaHTSS release, the estimates will cover 2024/25 and will be comparable to the 2023/24 estimates 

• re-introducing more granular level reporting. The change in methodology resulted in less breakdowns of the sector being published due to further development being needed to collect this with the new collection method. Site level reporting and some subsector analysis was not reported in the 2023/24 statistics.  OLS are considering how to reintroduce these to future publications by using further information on local units available in the Office for National Statistics’ (ONS) Inter-Departmental Business Register (IDBR) dataset and exploring the use of new data sources that can be used to identify companies’ sub-activities 

• quality and coverage of companies found by the new automated approach. OLS are considering how to improve the accuracy of companies identified through the automated approach. OLS are also exploring whether ONS’s IDBR could be used to expand the coverage of life sciences companies in the BaHTSS dataset 

More details on the change in methodology and the impacts can be found in the accompanying user guide for the BaHTSS 2023/24 release. 

OLS will aim to publish the next release of the BaHTSS publication for 2024/25 in summer 2026. This will contain an update on what improvements have been made and any changes in content.

5. Life Sciences Competitiveness Indicators (LSCIs) – Voluntary Application of the Code of Practice 

The LSCIs are a set of high-level indicators, published by OLS to measure the performance of the UK’s life sciences sector by benchmarking the UK against comparator countries. The indicators are brought together from a range of different sources, including data already in the public domain, and commercially sourced data.  

The LSCIs are not official statistics due to the wide range of data sources used in the report which are often not owned by UK Government. There are alternative domestic (UK only) sources for some metrics within the LSCIs; whilst these are often higher quality and allow a wider range of statistics to be produced, these would not allow an international comparison. OLS have committed to Voluntary Application (VA) of the Code of Practice as part of the most recent release. OLS published an accompanying VA statement alongside the 2024 statistics, setting out this commitment and where the LSCIs adheres to principles in the code, where there is intention to improve over time and to highlight where there are any necessary deviations from the principles in the Code of Practice.

6. Cyber Security Breaches Survey

The Cyber Security Breaches Survey is an annual survey of the UK’s cyber resilience, focusing on businesses, charities, and educational institutions. The study covers: 

• prioritisation, information seeking (including the use of government guidance), and decision making on cyber security, including at management board level cyber security approaches, such as risk management (including cyber insurance, software, and supply chain risks), technical controls, staff training, responsibilities, and governance 

• the cyber threat landscape, including the identification of cyber security breaches or attacks, their outcomes and impacts, and their self-reported financial cost 

• incident response approaches and the reporting of cyber security breaches or attacks 

• the prevalence, nature, scale, and financial costs of cyber crime, as well as the prevalence, nature, and scale of fraud resulting from cyber breaches or attacks 

New questions have been included to examine specific cyber security practices or processes that are in place to manage the risks associated with the use of AI technology. A new follow-up question has also been added to gain an understanding of the type of organisational and personal data that may be altered, destroyed, or taken during a cyber security breach or attack. 

Supporting reference tables have been introduced for the first time in the latest annual publication, allowing detailed breakdowns for each survey question to be explored by users. The naming convention of the survey years has also been changed, with the dates of the survey fieldwork now being reflected rather than the publication date. The statistics published in April 2026 were therefore referred to as the 2025/2026 statistics. 

An Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR) compliance review of the survey has recently been completed. This found that “the statistics from the Cyber Security Breaches Survey are clear and insightful, and that the DSIT team has a good understanding of user needs”. Given the timing of this review relative to the statistics publication the recommendations received will be addressed in the 2026/2027 publication. 

For queries about the Cyber Security Breaches Survey, please contact cybersurveys@dsit.gov.uk

7. Economic Statistical Estimates for DSIT Sectors

7.1 DSIT Sectoral Statistics Exploratory Project

DSIT is currently reviewing the way that economic statistics for various sectors within DSIT’s remit are produced. As part of this review, exploratory work has started looking at a more centralised framework for producing economic statistics across DSIT, looking at key metrics such as turnover, employment, business counts etc. 

A full publication using this work is not planned for the 2026/27 year, but this exploratory project is intended to form the basis for a future official statistics series on DSIT Sectoral Statistics. 

Some of the concepts explored as part of this work will be trialled in a Digital and Technologies Sector publication in late spring 2026, which uses a Digital and Technologies Sector List of companies and business microdata to produce economic estimates for the Digital and Technologies Sector. This will be an ad hoc statistical release that may then be incorporated into the DSIT Sectoral Statistics in the future.

7.2 Digital Sector Economic Estimates

The Digital Sector Economic Estimates (DEE) series provides Official Statistics on the contribution of the digital sector to the UK economy, with the current release schedule focused on releases that relate to the following key metrics:  

• Gross Value Added (GVA)  

• employment  

In 2024, DSIT undertook a consultation on the series, identifying which releases were of the most benefit for our users. The outcome of the consultation shaped our workplans for the series, with a focus on the GVA and employment releases. 

With most of our development work focussed on the wider DSIT Sectoral Statistics described above, the 2026/27 plan for DEE is the same as for 2025/26. 

The releases paused following the 2024 consultation will remain paused for this coming year: 

• business demographics 

• imports and exports of services and goods 

• productivity 

• headline earnings 

Further work is being undertaken to refine the series, including a consideration of any updates to the Digital Sector definition that underpins these releases and any resulting methodological changes. DSIT will provide relevant updates on this work when they become available and ensure our users are engaged, but otherwise plan to follow the standard release schedule for the series as set out in our consultation response. 

This series was previously produced by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) but has been produced by DSIT since April 2024. Previous releases of digital sector economic estimates published by DCMS can be found here: DCMS Economic Estimates. 

To look up individual releases, please use the DSIT Release Calendar. 

If you would like to get in touch with us about these statistics, please contact economicestimates@dsit.gov.uk

8. DSIT Public Engagement Survey

Official statistics on digital inclusion and skills, and broadband and mobile data usage were previously published by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) until 2024/25 as part of the Participation Survey. 

Since late 2024 DSIT has been scoping a new survey on how people are engaging with, or experiencing, science and technology in their day-to-day lives. This included a user engagement exercise at the start of 2025 seeking feedback on a high-level proposal for content and methodology. The DSIT Public Engagement Survey has now been developed and fieldwork started in November 2025. The results for 2025/26 will be available in summer 2026. 

The survey collects data on:  

• digital inclusion and digital skills  

• broadband and mobile data usage  

• use of government digital services  

• attitudes towards science, technology and data  

• adoption and attitudes relating to Artificial Intelligence (AI) 

The survey also includes a series of demographic questions (for example, age and education).  

The Public Engagement Survey is a push-to-web survey with the option to complete the survey on paper as an offline alternative. Paper questionnaires are also being proactively sent out with reminder letters to make it as representative as possible including for digitally excluded respondents. An achieved sample of 30,000 respondents is expected enabling detailed analysis by key demographics and geographic variables down to International Territorial Level 2. 

For queries about Public Engagement Survey statistics, please contact publicengagementsurvey@dsit.gov.uk

9. UK Business Data Survey

The UK Business Data Survey is a quantitative and qualitative study of UK businesses.  

It seeks to understand:  

• the role and importance of personal and non-personal data in UK businesses  

• domestic and international transfers of data  

• activities and opinions relating to data protection legislation and policy  

In summer 2026 we intend to publish results from the fourth iteration of the survey. 

The range of topics covered in 2026 was influenced by a user engagement exercise conducted between 6 May to 13 June 2025. As a result, coverage of questions related to the use of AI was expanded, whilst maintaining coverage of existing topics by introducing phased coverage of some topics so that they will be covered in more detail in alternate iterations. For instance, in 2026 the section on data protection compliance was simplified, with the intention of returning to the detailed 2024 questionnaire for this section in 2028. 

For queries about UK Business Data Survey statistics, please contact ukbusinessdatasurvey@dsit.gov.uk

10. Ad hoc statistical releases 

Additional analyses not included in any of DSIT’s standard official statistics publications will be made available on the DSIT ad hoc statistical releases page or embedded within related policy documents.

11. User feedback 

DSIT statisticians seek to engage and be responsive to user feedback from internal and external stakeholders. This includes developing our statistical outputs, data sources and methodologies to make sure the statistics continue to be of value