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Division Current situation

United Kingdom

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Structural Business Statistics are used for detailed analysis of the European business sector. Main user concerns are the insufficient timeliness of the data and the slow adaptation to new and emerging policy needs, for example insufficient information on the services sector, entrepreneurship, globalisation and the transition to sustainable production patterns. For specific manufacturing sectors, production statistics are an essential complement for the understanding of the performance of the sector.

Community Innovation Statistics are the main tool for measuring innovation in Europe. These statistics have been produced biannually since 2004. As far as possible micro-data access is granted to the Community Innovation Survey (CIS) data.

Statistics on foreign affiliates (FATS) are being developed and the new Regulation will give a basic set of variables for measuring globalisation. The Community register of multinational enterprise groups (EuroGroups) as entailed by the new Business Register Regulation is in a pilot phase.

Main initiatives for 2008 to 2012:

  • full implementation of key legislation will be ensured (recast of the SBS Regulation, FATS Regulation, EuroGroups register). Pilot studies foreseen in the legislation will be carried out and fully evaluated,

  • for the CIS 2008, the Oslo Manual 2005 will be fully implemented. The CIS 2010 and subsequent Community Innovation Surveys will also further improve data quality and data access,

  • new statistics to deepen the understanding of the globalisation of the economy and entrepreneurship will be developed,

  • user concerns regarding timeliness and inertia in responding to new needs will be tackled by testing new and flexible ways to collect data through ad-hoc surveys and European sample approaches,

  • while protecting the right of enterprises to keep their data confidential, methods of releasing the European aggregates at the most detailed activity level will be developed,

  • the NACE Rev. 2 classification of economic activities will be implemented in all business statistics as from the reference year 2008 onwards,

  • a special programme will be designed for the re-engineering of business and trade statistics. Within this programme ways to reduce the burden on businesses will be developed.