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Research and analysis

Trade and investment factsheets: quality and methodology report

The quality and methodology report for the trade and investment factsheets.

Updates to this page

From:
Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade and Department for Business and Trade
Published:
12 February 2021
Last updated:
24 September 2026
Show all updates

  1. The quality and methodology report has been converted from PDF to HTML and the content has been updated to reflect the latest available information on all the data sources and methods used in the factsheets.

  2. Data source sections updated to reflect most recent changes to the factsheets.

  3. The quality and methodology report has been updated to reflect the addition of a new table to the UK Market Share page, showing annual UK market share figures over a ten-year time period.

  4. Factsheets updated to reflect the latest data available. The data source for the number of businesses trading goods has been changed from HMRC Trade in Goods by Business Characteristics to HMRC Regional Trade Statistics. Further details can be found in the quality and methodology report published alongside these factsheets.

  5. A new section has been added to describe ONS data on UK trade in services by modes of supply, which are now included in the factsheets.

  6. Quality and methodology report updated for March 2022 release: Amended text to reflect the changes in foreign direct investment (FDI) methodology, and changes in data collection in 2022 for trade in goods with EU partners.

  7. Quality and methodology report updated for February 2021 release: Amended text to reflect the new seasonally-adjusted quarterly trade data source for all partners, plus the addition of Section 3.13 on past changes to previous data sources.

  8. Quality and methodology report updated for October 2021 release: Added text on the reasons for the withdrawal of the ease of doing business statistics from the factsheets, and removed references to these data.

  9. Quality and methodology report updated for July 2021 release: Minor text amendments made to the section on HMRC regional trade statistics.

  10. Quality and methodology report updated for May 2021 release.

  11. First published.

Documents

Quality and methodology report: trade and investment factsheets

HTML

Details

As a requirement of publishing the trade and investment factsheets as official statistics, this quality and methodology report outlines the quality of these factsheets.

It also provides more information on the methodology of the data sources presented in the factsheets.

This report contains hyperlinks to more information on the strengths and weaknesses for each data source.

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