The Office for Statistics Regulation will carry out a review of HM Revenue and Customs’ statistics following recent “high-profile errors”.
Last month, it emerged that incorrect data supplied by HMRC to the Office for National Statistics meant government borrowing had been overestimated by a combined £3bn in the last two fiscal years.
And on Thursday, the ONS said there had been an error in HMRC’s overseas trade statistics, which had led to some data being erroneously excluded from ONS ‘trade in goods’ publications since March 2024.
Writing to Alison Woodhouse, HMRC's director of knowledge, analysis and intelligence, OSR director general Ed Humpherson said the review will be split into two phases. The OSR will initially focus on the two recent errors – examining the issues, evaluating corrective actions taken and reporting findings in early 2026.
Subject to the outcomes and recommendations from "phase one", Humpherson said the OSR “may proceed to a broader systemic review”, which would build on the recommendations from a previous review the OSR completed in 2020 and “incorporate insights from phase one to drive long-term improvements”.
Humpherson said the review will assess HMRC statistics against the Code of Practice for Statistics and will "follow up" up on the review the OSR carried out in 2020, which he described as having "a positive impact, helping to enhance HMRC’s statistical quality processes”.
Humpherson said the key improvements delivered in response to the 2020 review included greater transparency and clearer documentation, improved accessibility of statistics, and strengthened quality assurance.
Humpherson also noted that HMRC had engaged with statistics users through a recent consultation to better understand and respond to their requirements. And he acknowledged that the department had responded to the two recent errors by taking the “initiative to address the risk of errors on its statistics having a significant impact on other market sensitive official statistics”.
Highlighting HMRC's response to the error that impacted on borrowing estimates, Humpherson said HMRC had "promptly informed ONS and issued a public statement on the impact, allowing the ONS to act and issue a blog and update on its public sector finances statistics" and welcomed the department's decision to undertake a lessons learned exercise with relevant teams.
But Humperson added that in light of the recent “high-profile errors” and their impact on downstream outputs produced by ONS: “In parallel, we consider it timely to undertake a comprehensive follow-up review of HMRC’s processes and develop recommendations. Working together on these complementary efforts will help ensure robust outcomes and maintain public confidence.”
An HMRC spokesperson said: “We take any errors in published statistics seriously and act quickly to correct them. We welcome the proposed review by the Office for Statistics Regulation.”