You asked
I would like to request the following data under the Freedom of Information Act;
Monthly and quarterly total Gross Value Added for London
Monthly and quarterly domestic and overseas/international visitors to London i.e. overnight stays, number of visitors
Quarterly investment levels in London - public and private
Quarterly total consumer expenditure in London - a break down of each sector would also be useful
Quarterly tourist expenditure, both domestic and overseas
For all of the above, I would like it to be from 2005 onward to the most recent available.
We said
Thank you for your request.
The International Passenger Survey (IPS) publishes data on visits to the UK by overseas residents and their spending. We do not publish data on tourism within the UK by UK residents. You may be interested in the information on domestic tourism published by Visit Britain, see: https://www.visitbritain.org/
The data already provided in our publications are as follows and can be accessed via the following links:
This link is for Travel Trends 2008. Table 2.16 shows (overnight) visits to regions, including London, for the years 2004-2008; this table also shows purpose of visit. Table 2.17 shows visits by quarter for the same period;
This link is for tables from Travel Trends 2013. Table 2.17 shows (overnight) visits to regions, including London, for the years 2009-2013; this table also shows purpose of visit. Table 2.18 shows visits by quarter for the same period;
This link is for tables from Travel Trends 2016. Table 2.17 shows (overnight) visits to regions, including London, for the years 2012-2016; this table also shows purpose of visit. Table 2.18 shows visits by quarter for the same period;
The additional information you have requested can be obtained from the customer services team of ONS Social Services division. This team provides an ad hoc analysis service. This service is subject to legal frameworks, disclosure control, resources and agreements of costs, where appropriate.
If you would like to enquire about our service then please contact socialsurveys@ons.gov.uk
Because this information is available through that route, we consider that Freedom of Information Act s.21(1) applies to this request and the information does not have to be supplied under the Freedom of Information Act. S.21(1) is an absolute exemption and no consideration of the public interest needs to be applied.
If you are able to do your own analyses you could obtain an anonymised IPS dataset from the UK Data Service. Details on costs and how to download the data can be found on their website:
Advice for commercial users;http://ukdataservice.ac.uk/get-data/how-to-access/registration.aspx#/tab-commercial-users
Charges; http://ukdataservice.ac.uk/get-data/how-to-access/charges.aspx
Unfortunately we are unable to provide you with monthly and quarterly Gross Value Added (GVA) and quarterly total consumer expenditure for London. We are currently developing quarterly estimates of regional GVA and annual estimates of regional household expenditure which are intended for future publication. S.22(1) of the Freedom of Information Act applies whereby information is exempt from release if there is a view to publish the information in the future. This exemption is subject to a public interest test. Whilst we recognise the desirability of information being freely available, we also acknowledge that public authorities must have the freedom to be able to determine their own publication timetables. This allows them to deal with the necessary preparation, administration, and context of publication. Furthermore, public interest is best served through the public having confidence that the information published by ONS is accurate and final. Release on an ad-hoc basis would not achieve this aim and will cause unnecessary confusion if they were to be misrepresented. In this case, exempting the information clearly outweighs the public interest in disclosure.
We do not hold quarterly investment levels in London for the both public and private sectors.