Cessation of Defence Export Delivery and Defence Employment Statistics in UK Defence Statistics

Cessation of Defence Export Delivery and Defence Employment Statistics in UK Defence Statistics

A Defence Policy and Business news article, 14 Nov 08

A number of tables currently presented in Chapter 1(Finance) of the MOD's annual statistical compendium, UK Defence Statistics, will no longer be published beyond 2009.

The defence export delivery statistics (table 1.13) published in the 2008 edition have now been discontinued. In addition, the 2009 edition (published next September) will include final estimates for national and regional estimates of defence-related employment (tables 1.10, 1.11, 1.11a & 1.11b).

Ministers have agreed, as part of the Streamlining of MOD Headquarters, that the Department should no longer compile these statistics on the basis that the data does not directly support MOD policy-making and operations. The main driver for ending production of these statistics in the case of defence exports is the technical difficulty of continuing to produce reliable statistics following changes to administrative arrangements in Revenue and Customs.

With regard to the defence export statistics, UKTI will continue to produce its own estimates of export orders placed (as opposed to deliveries made, which the DASA statistics sought to capture) each year in conjunction with the SBAC, and this will be unaffected by the change.

Various international obligations to provide data on arms sales, for example to the UN and EU, will continue to be met from HMRC data without the need for the additional work currently undertaken by DASA to produce the tables in UK Defence Statistics.

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