The “UK Trade: May 2016” statistical release that will be published at 9.30am on Friday 8 July 2016 will not include chained volume series or price indices for the months of April and May in Tables 3, 4, 5, 6, 9 and 10. Commentary on chained volume series will also be excluded from the statistical bulletin while further quality assurance of the data is undertaken.
ONS intends to publish the full chained volume series and price indices at 9.30am on Friday 15 July 2016.
The reason for the delay is to allow additional time to resolve some issues identified in the volume series (i.e. with the effects of price movements removed) and the price indices for the months of April and May 2016 and to complete essential quality assurance.
The current price series for the whole time series are unaffected by this issue and will be published as planned at 9.30am on Friday 8 July 2016.
The volume series for the period up to and including quarter 1 (Jan to Mar) 2016 are also unaffected. Therefore, this issue does not affect the Balance of Payments, quarter 1 (Jan to Mar) 2016 or the Quarterly National Accounts, quarter 1 (Jan to Mar) 2016 published on 30 June 2016.
ONS considers the quality of its series to be paramount. Quality assurance procedures in the UK Trade production process have identified an issue with the volume series and price indices in the months of April and May 2016 in the compilation of this release. It has not been possible to resolve this issue with confidence in time for the scheduled release on Friday, 8 July 2016, so ONS has decided to delay publication of the UK Trade volume series and price indices for the months of April and May by one week.
ONS apologises for any inconvenience caused.