Office for National Statistics written evidence submission to the Environmental Audit Committee’s inquiry into the role of natural capital in the green economy

Dear Mr Perkins,

Please accept my congratulations on your election as Chair of the Environmental Audit Committee. Further to our update to the previous Committee in November 2023, I am writing to provide a further update on recent and upcoming Office for National Statistics (ONS) environmental work.

This includes work on the UK natural capital accounts which will be of potential relevance to the Committee’s revived “role of natural capital in the green economy” inquiry.

Natural Capital Accounts

We continue to produce the UK’s Natural Capital Accounts, which estimate the current value of natural wealth and what it could provide for future generations, as noted in our previous update.

Widely regarded as world-leading, these accounts are produced on a consistent basis with the System of National Accounts (SNA) used to produce Gross Domestic Product (GDP) statistics, and so help to understand the links between the environment and economic statistics. Produced following UN standards and guidance, these are also broadly comparable internationally where other countries publish similar accounts.

Our latest annual release in November 2024 provides our best estimate of the total asset value of ecosystem services in the UK of around £1.8 trillion in 2022.

Building on 2023’s Principles of UK natural capital accounting, we have expanded the range of ecosystem services measured and data sources used, as detailed in our methods guide published with the annual release. For example, our latest tourism and recreation and associated health benefits estimates now include data from the People and Nature Survey for Wales, increasing our coverage to the whole of the UK.

Among ongoing methodological developments, we are working to increase timeliness of our statistics, adapting the methodology of recreation and tourism estimates to align with new data sources, improving coverage of urban heat regulating services from city regions to Local Authority level, and improving estimates of agricultural biomass provisioning, enabling us to produce enclosed farmland accounts which would be used by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra). We will also focus our development capacity on other key user needs, such as expanding service coverage to include measures such as valuing flood defence.

We also published our latest habitat-focused accounts, for woodlands, in May 2024.

The UK Natural Capital accounts are very relevant for policy development. Defra produce an annual paper covering key points for policy makers in the UK and England based on our Natural Capital Accounts. The next iteration of this is due for release in early 2025.

We are also aware of growing demand from local and combined authorities, as well as other organisations for even greater spatial granularity to support their work and policies. Elements of the natural capital accounts, e.g. air pollution and greenhouse gas regulating services, are already available at local authority level. Our intention is to add urban heat regulating services, and also to produce recreation services at England region level.

Given the increasing interest in these estimates, we are looking at the possibility of moving our natural capital accounts from statistics in development to official statistics, in 2026.

Depletion of natural resources

The upcoming revision of the SNA, due to be adopted by the UN Statistical Commission in March 2025, is for the first time expected to incorporate a measure of the depletion of natural resources in core economic metrics. This would likely to be included in Net Domestic Product, and comparing this with more widely used GDP data would provide a measure of the longer-term sustainability of the economy.

Measurement of depletion also contributes towards measurement and analysis of ‘inclusive wealth’, as outlined in the HM Treasury-commissioned Dasgupta Review of the Economics of Biodiversity. As a ‘beyond GDP’ measure, inclusive wealth is more ambitious than the SNA revision, bringing in a more comprehensive definition of natural capital, as well as human capital, to create more holistic measure of economic welfare. These measures highlight the impact of economic activity now and into the future, and potential trade-offs and synergies between resource use, depletion and regeneration and economic growth. Depletion data will support the production of adjusted macroeconomic aggregates, such as net inclusive income and wealth. The latest edition of the ONS’s work on this was also published in November 2024.

While measuring UK natural capital asset depletion presents significant methodological and data challenges, we intend to build on our initial experimental estimates published in March 2024, which focused on non-renewables: oil, gas and coal. Our ambition would be to enhance our natural capital accounts to first quantify, then regularly produce, statistics on depletion of renewable resources – fish stocks, timber, renewable energy – and to estimate the costs of restoring environmental damage due to human activity.

Measuring private investment in nature

The Committee’s 18 December 2024 evidence session touched on measurement of the nature recovery investment target. The Minister for Nature referred to ongoing discussions between the Defra and the ONS on measuring this target.

These discussions have focused on the potential to transform our existing Environmental Protection Expenditure business survey to gather the data needed to produce annual statistics of relevance to this target. Progress is subject to the outcomes of ongoing internal business planning following the 2025/26 Spending Review and the second phase of the Spending Review.

Greenhouse gas emissions estimates

We produce estimates of greenhouse gas (GHG), alongside air pollution, emissions statistics on a residence, or production, basis. These complement territorial measure – emissions that occur within the UK’s borders – produced by the Department for Energy, Security and Net Zero that is used to monitor UK emissions targets, as they are residence-based, they are comparable with a range of important economic statistics, including GDP. We regularly update our explainer article about the different UK emissions measures.

Our latest provisional estimates of annual GHG and emissions statistics on a residence (or production) basis, published on 17 October 2024, found that GHG emissions decreased by 3.8% between 2022 and 2023, having increased 1.2% in 2022, and 0.3% below the 2020 level, during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

Having remained stable of the last couple of years, emissions intensity was down 71% between 1990 (when this series began) and 2023 to reach its lowest ever level: 0.18 thousand tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent per million pounds of gross value added.

Our modelled estimates of quarterly emissions statistics for quarter 2 (April to June) 2024 were published on 6 November. Noting that these estimates are subject to greater uncertainty as final emissions estimates for 2023 are not yet available, these found that residence-based GHG emissions were 2.5% higher than in the same quarter in 2023.

Our estimates for Quarter 3 (July to September) 2023 are due to be published on 30 January 2025. Having developed innovative modelling to provide these more timely statistics, we are working towards securing official statistics status for these previous experimental statistics in development in this next release.

We are also looking at developing our environmental taxes work, looking at environmental subsidies, and produced deflated versions of our measures.

Measuring green jobs

Following publication of our definition of a green job in March 2023, “Employment in an activity that contributes to protecting or restoring the environment, including those that mitigate or adapt to climate change”, and initial estimates in September 2023, we published a second set of estimates on 14 March 2024.

Findings included that, using the industry approach, UK employment in green jobs in 2022 was an estimated 639,400 full-time equivalents (FTEs), up 8.4% on the 589,600 FTEs in 2021 and 19.9% higher than the 533,200 FTEs in 2020.

We are hoping to be able to publish annual green jobs estimates on an ongoing basis, following the release of our low carbon and renewable energy economy statistics in each year. We are continuing to develop the measurement of green jobs, towards increasing timeliness and accuracy, thus enhancing the evidence base on this important issue.

UN environmental economy statistical framework review

Following the process leading to the 2025 SNA revision, the UN Statistics Commission is expected to approve a revision to the current System of Environmental Economic Accounting Central Framework (SEEA-CF), targeting adoption in 2028. Adopted in 2012, this explores environment-economy interlinkages, and provides an internationally comparable approach used in our emissions and Environmental Taxes publications.

The review is intended to ensure that SEEA-CF remains responsive to emerging demands for integrated environmental and economic data. Potential work areas include linkages with SEEA Ecosystem Accounting (which our Natural Capital Accounts follow, see above); consistency with the 2025 SNA revision and harmonisation with updates to other relevant international frameworks and classifications; and strengthening links with policy the social domain.

The UK – through the ONS – is likely to be involved in the review process, potentially co-leading one of the working groups that are likely to be established, potentially focusing on issues including: classification of environmental activity; climate mitigation (net zero) and adaptation expenditure; environmentally damaging subsidies; incorporating sustainable finance into an accounting framework; and potentially extending ‘environmental activities’ beyond environmental protection and resource management.

Business & Individual sentiment & actions

In November 2024, we brought data on sentiment and responses to environmental issues from two of our rapid surveys – the Business Insights and Conditions Survey (BICS) and the Opinions & Lifestyle Survey – together in Public and business attitudes to the environment and climate change, Great Britain; 2023 and 2024. Key points from the release can be found in Annex A.

More recently, when asked about the important issues facing the UK today, during the period 6 November to 1 December 2024, 59% of adults in Great Britain selected climate change and the environment as an important issue. The other most commonly reported issues were NHS (86%), the cost of living (85%), the economy (68%), and crime (60%). Females (65%) were more likely to consider climate change and the environment as an important issue facing the UK than males (54%). The next release in this series is on 24 January 2025.

Additionally, when asked in BICS in late December 2024:

Nearly three in five (59%) businesses reported that they were not concerned about the impact climate change may have on their business; this is up 3 percentage points from late September 2024 and is the highest proportion reported since the question was first introduced into the BICS in September 2022.
17% of businesses reported that they had taken at least one action to protect the environment, up 3 percentage points from late September 2024, but in line with late June 2024; the most commonly reported action was monitoring climate-related risks at 7%, broadly stable over the same period.
More than half (51%) of businesses reported that they had taken at least one action to reduce their carbon emissions, up 3 percentage points from late September 2024; the most reported actions taken were switching to LED bulbs (34%), adjusting heating and cooling systems (24%), and installing a smart meter (15%).

Note: Industries excluded from the BICS sample include those in agriculture, oil and gas extraction, energy generation and supply, public administration and defence, public provision of education and health, and finance and insurance.

Climate & Health

The ONS is also leading an international project called Standards for Official Statistics on Climate and Health Interactions (SOSCHI), with funding from Wellcome and in partnership with UKHSA and colleagues in Ghana and Rwanda. The aim is to develop a transparent and globally usable framework, with accompanying statistical methods to better estimate climate-related health risk using real-world data sources, including modelling local-level impacts. The project will help stakeholders produce high-quality data and statistics and communicate with a range of audiences. Especially in low- and middle-income countries, where the ability to monitor the effects of climate change will be increased by the provision of practical, coherent standards and open-source tools.

An overview of the project is available on the ONS website. Outputs to date include a first ‘Alpha’ version of the statistical framework and introductory papers looking at health impacts and outlining metrics for several topics including heat and cold related mortality. The project will publish its final recommendations in spring 2026 and links to international indicator development on the effects of climate change by the United Nations, the World Health Organisation and others.

Other relevant ONS publications

Our latest annual energy efficiency of housing in England and Wales release was published on 8 October 2024. Findings include that new dwellings are becoming more efficient, regardless of property or tenure type: new dwellings in both England and Wales had a median Energy Performance Certificate score of 84 in the five years to 2024, compared with 82 in England and 81 in Wales in the five years to 2013.

Other publications of potential interest to the Committee since our previous update include:

High emission-intensity industries (digital content) 5 December 2023
Impact of hot days on productivity in Great Britain (ONS Working Paper), 15 May 2024
Quarterly Measuring progress, wellbeing & beyond GDP Q4 – Wellbeing, climate change & nature, 14 November 2024

We also made our first ONS Statistically Speaking podcast, on “Green Data: Measuring the Environment”, available in August 2024.

As ever, we would be happy to brief the Committee further on any aspect of our work if helpful.

I am also copying this letter to the chairs of the Environment and Climate Change Committee, the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee, and the Energy Security and Net Zero Committee for their information.

Yours sincerely,

Mike Keoghan

Deputy National Statistician for Economic, Social and Environmental Statistics

Annex A: Public and business attitudes to the environment and climate change, Great Britain; 2023 and 2024: key points

Using the latest data collected from adults in Great Britain in October 2024 using our Opinions and Lifestyle Survey:

Around 6 in 10 (57%) adults reported climate change and the environment was an important issue, compared with a recent high of 69% in July to August 2023.
The most common ways adults reported climate change had affected them in the last 12 months were strong winds (40%), floods (35%) and heatwaves (30%).
The most commonly reported ways adults expected climate change would affect them in the next 10 years were increased temperatures (65%), increased flooding (60%), stronger winds (50%), rising sea levels or coastal erosion (44%) and water shortages (40%), with around 8 in 10 (83%) expecting to be affected in the next 10 years in at least one of the ways we asked about.

When considering public attitudes to climate change by different characteristics using data collected during August to October 2024:

Groups of the population who appeared more likely to report climate change and the environment was an important issue included adults with a degree or equivalent (66%), working in professional occupations (67%), those living in the least deprived areas of England (61%), women (60%), those living in the South West (61%), those aged 16 to 29 years (59%) or aged 70 years and over.
Around three-quarters (76%) of adults reported having made changes (68% some, 9% a lot) to their lifestyle to help tackle climate change; groups who appeared more likely to report this included those working in professional occupations (85%), adults with a degree or equivalent (85%), Asian or Asian British adults or Mixed or multiple ethnic group adults (82%), women (81%), those living in London (81%), adults aged 30 to 49 years (80%) or 50 to 69 years (79%).
Among the 24% of adults who had not made any lifestyle changes to help tackle climate change, the most commonly reported reasons were not feeling that their changes would have any effect on climate change (42%), thinking that large-scale polluters should change before individuals (37%), it being too expensive to make changes (24%) and not knowing how to make changes (19%).

The majority of adults in Great Britain (74%) reported they would support (41% strongly, 33% somewhat) the creation of renewable energy projects in their local area; this proportion appeared higher among groups including those with a degree or equivalent (84%) or those in professional occupations (85%).

Using data collected during late September 2024 from our UK Business Insights and Conditions Survey (BICS) to examine business attitudes towards climate change. Note that industries excluded from the BICS sample include those in agriculture, oil and gas extraction, energy generation and supply, public administration and defence, public provision of education and health, and finance and insurance.

The proportion of businesses that expressed concern (very or somewhat concerned) about the impact of climate change on their business had fallen from around a third (34%) in late June 2024 to less than 3 in 10 (28%) in late September 2024.
Among all businesses, the accommodation and food service activities industry had the largest proportion of businesses reporting some form of concern, at 44%, with the lowest level of reported concern being reported by the other service activities industry, which includes hairdressing and other beauty treatments, at 6%.
Concern about climate change increased as business size increased, from 26% for businesses with fewer than 10 employees, up to 57% for businesses with 250 or more employees.
When asked about which risks of climate change businesses had assessed, supply chain disruption and distribution (8%) was most commonly reported, followed by temperature increases (4%) and increased flooding (4%), but the majority of businesses (74%) had not assessed any of the risks listed (other response options included coastal erosion and water security.)
Among businesses that had assessed at least one climate change risk, 29% reporting having acted as a result, with the largest proportion having taken action against potential supply chain disruption and distribution risks (15%).

The majority of UK businesses surveyed (79%) reported in BICS for late September 2024 that they had not been affected by severe weather events in the last 12 months. Of the remaining 21% of businesses that reported they had been affected, storms (7%) was the most commonly reported response, followed by flooding (5%), and increased temperatures or heat, at 4%.

Among those businesses who reported they had been affected by severe weather events in the last 12 months, the most commonly reported forms of impact were weather-related damage to physical infrastructure (20%), employee absence (13%), disruption to local supply chains (9%) and disruption to global supply chains (5%), 13% reported “Other”, while around half (50%) of businesses were not sure how they had been affected.

Office for National Statistics correspondence with the Environmental Audit Committee on the role of natural capital in the green economy

Dear Mr Dunne,

I am writing to you and the Committee to provide an update on recent and upcoming Office for National Statistics’ (ONS) environmental work. This includes work on the UK natural capital accounts, potentially useful background for the Committee’s “role of natural capital in the green economy” inquiry, as well as measuring green jobs, greenhouse gas emissions, and other environment-related publications.

Measuring green jobs

In our March 2023 green jobs update, we outlined our proposed definition, developed through extensive stakeholder engagement: “Employment in an activity that contributes to protecting or restoring the environment, including those that mitigate or adapt to climate change.”

Our September 2023 release, “Experimental estimates of green jobs, UK: 2023”, provided our first estimates of green jobs in the UK, with indicative estimates using three bases – industry, occupation, and firm.

We are continuing to develop the measurement of green jobs, towards increasing timeliness and accuracy, thus enhancing the evidence base on this important issue.

Greenhouse gas emissions (residence based) estimates

On 9 October 2023, we published the latest UK environment accounts, including provisional estimates of greenhouse gas emissions on a residence-basis for 2022, alongside air pollution figures.

In July 2023, we published our first experimental estimates of quarterly UK greenhouse gas emissions on a residence basis, up to Quarter 1 (January to March) 2023. We will be publishing further estimates, up to Quarter 2 (April to June) 2023, on 3 November. We use modelling techniques to provide more timely statistics alongside our annual estimates. While these estimates are different to territorial measures (emissions that occur within the UK’s borders) used to monitor UK emissions targets, produced by the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, as they are residence-based, they are comparable with a range of important economic statistics, including gross domestic product (GDP).

Natural capital accounts

We produce the UK Natural Capital Accounts, which monitor the changing capacity and demand for natural resources and the benefits they provide.

Widely regarded as world-leading, these accounts are produced on a consistent basis with the System of National Accounts (SNA) used to produce Gross Domestic Product (GDP), and so help to understand the links between the environment and economic statistics. As they are produced to UN standards and guidance, they are also broadly internationally comparable.

We have continued to develop our methodology, updating the “Principles of UK natural capital accounting” in June, outlining how we interpret and apply international guidelines to the UK context.

We published the latest urban habitat accounts in September. A summary of the latest UK natural capital accounts was also published in the Blue Book 2023 on 31 October, ahead of the full accounts being published in November. We have previously produced stand‑alone accounts for Scotland and England, and November’s release will feature breakdowns for all four UK nations for the first time.

Additionally, these natural capital accounts are an important element of our work to better understand inclusive wealth, the concept proposed in the HM Treasury-commissioned Dasgupta Review of the Economics of Biodiversity.

Businesses

We are also regularly using our Business Insights and Conditions Survey (BICS) to understand business responses to environmental issues.

In the period 7 to 20 August 2023, we asked UK businesses about climate change, finding 39% to be “very” or “somewhat concerned”, 44% “not concerned” and 17% “not sure”.

In terms of actions, 7% of businesses reported monitoring climate related risks, 4% having a climate change strategy, 3% having a greenhouse gas emissions target and 1% having a target that includes the supply chain. We also found that 3% of businesses reported monitoring nature or biodiversity risks, and 2% having a nature or biodiversity strategy.

In the period 24 July to 6 August 2023, 75% of businesses reported that they had not assessed the risks of any of the specified climate change effects (water scarcity, coastal erosion, increased flooding and temperature increases).[2] Of those that had assessed these risks, 28% had not taken any action, 18% did not expect to be impacted, while 18% reported they had been unable to take action either because of costs, or the lack of information or guidance.

Our BICS release, scheduled for 16 November[3], will look at barriers to business actions and whether climate change impacts are considered in businesses investment plans.

Individuals

We also continue to publish fortnightly statistics about issues of concern in Public Opinions and Social Trends.

The issue for the survey period 4 to 15 October 2023 found that, when asked about the important issues facing the UK today, the fourth most commonly reported issue was “climate change and the environment”, by 62% of adults in Great Britain.

We are planning further insights on public perceptions to the environment in the coming months. Our next update to our measures of national well-being dashboard, which includes a measure tracking pro-environmental lifestyle changes to tackle environmental issues, is on 10 November 2023.

Other relevant publications

We published “Climate-related mortality, England and Wales, 1988 to 2022” as experimental statistics in September, showing an estimated 4,507 deaths associated with the hottest days in England in 2022.

Our annual energy efficiency of housing release was also published on 1 November. We are also looking at the feasibility of linking energy performance certificate data to Census data to understand more about the households in high and low-rated energy efficient properties.

We would be happy to brief the Committee further on any aspect of our work if helpful.

Yours sincerely,

Mike Keoghan

Deputy National Statistician for Economic, Social and Environmental Statistics

Office for National Statistics correspondence to the Environmental Audit Committee regarding publication of climate change and wellbeing insights alongside GDP

Dear Mr Dunne,

Thank you for your letter of 28 June, of which you noted the interest of the Committee in our evaluation of the pilot publication we released on 12 May, which brought together climate change-related statistics with the preliminary quarterly estimate of Gross Domestic Product
(GDP). I also noted in my letter of 26 April to the Committee that we would look to publish wellbeing-related statistics alongside preliminary GDP estimates from 12 August 2022.

I am very happy, therefore, to confirm to the Committee that we have today published our new quarterly package of statistics, bringing together climate change and wellbeing insights alongside estimates of GDP. This marks the first update to the Measures of National Wellbeing dashboard since the pandemic and captures how some of these indicators have changed. The combined package of statistics is an important step in our ongoing mission to provide a more holistic understanding of the UK economy, society and environment.

We value and welcome feedback on this new approach as we determine whether this becomes a permanent release. Initial feedback from stakeholders across government to the May publication has been positive.

I thank you and the Committee for both your interest and support, and we will of course continue to engage with you as we progress.

Yours sincerely,
Professor Sir Ian Diamond

Office for National Statistics written evidence to the Environmental Audit Committee’s inquiry on aligning the UK’s economic goals with environmental sustainability

Dear Mr Dunne,
Thank you for your letter of 5 April 2022, following oral evidence from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) for the inquiry, Aligning the UK’s economic goals with environmental sustainability.

We welcome both the Committee’s recognition of our work to date on wellbeing, the environmental accounts, and the cross-government UK climate change statistics portal, and its recommendations for potential future work. While a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) metric will always be required to measure the economy, we also accept the need for a broader set of indicators to account for wider environmental and social progress, building on our Sustainable Development Goals and National Wellbeing resources.

In particular, your main recommendation was that:

“The ONS publish quarterly estimates of greenhouse gas emissions alongside GDP figures, as part of the same release. As further methodologies are developed to improve the means of accounting for the impact of nature depletion, we suggest that the ONS consider including the relevant outputs in these releases. The ONS would thereby help to provide greater focus on the climate and biodiversity impact of particular policies in the public policy debate.”

Building on the inclusion of environmental and natural capital accounts in the Blue Book, we will be increasing the prominence of ‘Beyond GDP’ elements of our outputs. We will publish a pilot publication of climate change-related statistics on the same day as the preliminary quarterly estimate of UK GDP on 12 May 2022. Subject to assessment of impact and feedback, the intention would be for this to become a regular quarterly publication. In addition, we will look to publish wellbeing-related statistics alongside preliminary GDP estimates from 12 August 2022.

We produce annual estimates of residence-based greenhouse gas emissions, which enable direct sectoral comparison with the national accounts. We have been reviewing options for a quarterly estimate of this emissions measure and will publish an initial methodological
publication also on 12 May 2022. Further progress will be informed by stakeholder and user feedback.

Linking economic activity with related environmental impacts through GDP or wealth accounts is a substantial undertaking. Our work developing robust estimates of UK natural capital accounts are world leading. Our work to adapt these figures to link with the national accounts is in progress, including publishing a new approach bringing together statistical indicators of the extent and condition of nature in the UK on 3 May 2022.

We will set out our Beyond GDP plans on 12 May, with a timeline for delivering an initial assessment of the environmental impact of changes in quarterly GDP by the end of 2023. We will also publish our detailed workplan for natural capital accounts development by July 2022.

We will be taking the Committee’s recommendations into account as we deliver the above and accelerate our work and will update the Committee about this later in the year. We will also share all upcoming relevant publications noted within this response with the Committee when published.

Yours sincerely,
Professor Sir Ian Diamond

Office for National Statistics oral evidence to the Environmental Audit Committee’s inquiry on aligning the UK’s economic goals with environmental sustainability

On Wednesday 2 March 2022 Liz McKeown, Director for Public Policy Analysis at the Office for National Statistics, gave evidence to the Environmental Audit Committee’s inquiry on aligning the UK’s economic goals with environmental sustainability.

A transcript of which has been published on the UK Parliament website.

Office for National Statistics written evidence to the Environmental Audit Committee’s inquiry on aligning the UK’s economic goals with environmental sustainability

Dear Mr. Dunne,

I write in response to the Environmental Audit Committee’s request for evidence for its inquiry into aligning the UK’s economic goals with environmental sustainability.

As the Committee will be aware, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) is the UK’s National Statistical Institute and largest producer of official statistics. We aim to provide a firm evidence base for sound decisions and develop the role of official statistics in democratic debate.

We provided written evidence to the Committee for its inquiry on ecosystems and biodiversity in May 2021, which referenced natural capital accounting. We welcome this opportunity to contribute to this new inquiry and update the Committee on our work.

Our economic statistics include the National Accounts, Gross Domestic Product (GDP), prices, the labour market, productivity, public sector finances and trade. Users include the Bank of England, HM Treasury and other departments, the devolved administrations and other sub-national authorities.

The ONS’ environmental statistics include the environmental accounts, as outlined below, key surveys of the environmental economy and the natural capital accounts. These are used by a similarly broad range of departments and other bodies, including BEIS, DEFRA, the Climate Change Committee, and the Office for Environmental Protection.

As our evidence submission outlines, with understanding of the interlinkage of the environment and the economy – such as through climate change and biodiversity loss – increasing, these domains can no longer be treated as distinct and unrelated statistical domains. Additionally, Annex A contains further information on other measures of progress the ONS has developed or collaborated with other organisations on.

Our UK and international work is evolving, and we would be happy to keep the Committee updated as we progress. Please do not hesitate to let me know if we can provide anything further.

Yours sincerely,

Liz McKeown

Environmental Audit Committee: Aligning the UK’s economic goals with environmental sustainability: Written evidence from the Office for National Statistics

Executive Summary

The ONS produces annual environmental accounts which show how the environment interacts with the economy. They are used by predominantly government users, both nationally and internationally. They are comparable to some accounting estimates, such as GDP, as they are compiled in accordance with international guidelines.
In any move ‘Beyond GDP’, there is no agreed understanding of ‘prosperity’ or ‘progress’. A ‘one-size fits all’ approach to measuring progress is not necessarily the ideal model. The requirement to measure the economy means a GDP-style metric will always be required in its present form. But to meet the varied needs of different users with different needs, a range of different metrics are likely to be needed. While there is limited agreement on alternative measure(s), the ONS is contributing to this debate.
The UK produces its National Accounts in line with recognised international guidance developed by the UN and partner organisations, the System of National Accounts (SNA) (2008). The UK is actively engaging in work to update international guidance and ensure the key challenges. However, a key objective will be maintaining international coherence and consistency so the statistics are valuable and useable, we would not wish to change UK guidelines ahead of common international guidance.
The ONS has made and is making significant progress in addressing some of the key recommendations in the Bean and Dasgupta Reviews. This includes improved engagement with a range of users and a variety of new and experimental measures, such as estimates of the physical and mental benefits of outdoor recreation.
Operationalising Professor Dasgupta’s concept of ‘inclusive wealth’ means collating a range of measures of capital stocks. The ONS is currently working with academics to develop a measure of the overall stock of capital assets, including addressing the complex methodological challenges, and their practical application.

How does the way the Government currently uses GDP in setting macro-economic policy affect the development of environmental policy and of cross-departmental action to achieve the UK’s economic goals?

The Environmental Accounts

GDP and the National Accounts sit at the centre of a network of coherent and consistent ‘satellite accounts’ produced by the ONS. These provide further information either beyond the production boundary of the National Accounts or providing deeper interpretations of the data within the Accounts, so to better inform policymakers and the public.

The Environmental Accounts is one such set of satellite accounts. These show how the environment interacts with the economy – for example, through the extraction of raw materials – and how the economy interacts with the environment – for example, energy consumption and emissions of greenhouse gases and air pollution. They have three elements:

natural capital accounts: estimating the physical and monetary flows from a broad range of services delivered by the natural world;
physical flow accounts: atmospheric emissions, material flows, water use; and
monetary accounts: environmental taxes, environmental protection expenditure and environmental goods and services.

They show how society responds to environmental issues – for example, through taxation and expenditure on environmental protection, industrial decarbonisation, and changes in land use. Importantly, the environmental accounts enable apportioning greenhouse gas emissions by industry through their linkage to the national accounts.

The Environmental Accounts are used nationally and internationally, primarily by governments, but also by researchers and development organisations, to inform policy, to evaluate the environmental impacts of different sectors of the economy, and to model impacts of fiscal or monetary measures.

The UK’s environmental accounts are published annually and are also included in the Blue Book. As they are compiled in accordance with System of Environmental-Economic Accounts (SEEA), which closely follows the UN System of National Accounts (SNA), they are comparable with economic accounting estimates such as GDP.

How could GDP, or other current measures of macro-economic activity, more fully account for human and natural capital assets? What are the challenges and/or opportunities in moving to a way of measuring economic progress which takes greater account of such assets?

The National Accounts – and GDP – came into being around 80 years ago, in the aftermath of the Second World War. When material consumption was widely considered to be the most significant driver of human well-being, GDP rapidly became used as a short‑hand for concepts like living standards, welfare, and utility.

Economists generally define welfare as the utility or satisfaction society derives from the consumption of goods and services. These goods and services are delivered either by the market or through non-market arrangements (such as within the household or via the environment). The goods and services relating to market transactions are covered by GDP[1].

Non-market goods and services can play an important role in the quality of life of society. In this sense, welfare is multidimensional, encompassing material living standards such as income, consumption and wealth and the non-economic aspects of people’s lives (what they do and what they can do, how they feel, the natural environment in which they live, etc). There have been multiple instances where the international statistics community has identified that alternative measures are required[2].

The ONS is clear that while GDP is often used as a measure of welfare beyond the market, by its nature it is unlikely to provide a good proxy for those elements the National Accounts exclude. This debate has become essentially: if GDP is the accepted measure of welfare, should it be re-defined to become a good measure of welfare, or should alternative measures be created to accompany GDP to address these differences?

A ‘one-size fits all’ approach to measuring progress is not necessarily the ideal model. Given economic requirements to measure expenditure and market outputs mean a GDP-style metric will always be required broadly in its present form. To meet the varied needs of different users, a range of different complementary metrics are likely to be needed to suit these purposes.

While a range of alternatives have been developed, the debate continues – not least because there is limited international agreement on which alternatives to adopt, but also because GDP is the most successful economic statistic, dominating policy debate and public discourse, setting a competitive benchmark for any new metrics to gain media and public traction.

International work to tackle these questions is inevitably limited by the financial constraints faced by National Statistical Institutes around the world. Consistent delivery of any new measures requires these to be affordable to produce for most countries. To help solve this question the ONS has focussed its research on how to aggregate existing data to produce complementary statistics which could be used alongside GDP to meet wider user needs, without significant additional cost.

Statistics from the Environmental Accounts and the Household Satellite Accounts provide a strong foundation for this work. The Spectrum framework developed within this research delivers the capability to integrate these data, alongside human capital, into new measures which build upon rather than try to replace the National Accounts.

We are able to do this because satellite accounts are aligned with the SNA. As noted above, it is important to note that not all countries have been able to fully progress this agenda and deliver the necessary satellite accounts to enable even this relatively lower-cost approach. There also remain some methodological and empirical issues we need to resolve; in particular measures of natural capital depletion, and how to aggregate human capital alongside National Accounts data. This may require the re-consideration of various existing components of the national accounts. For example, Government and Private health and education spending, both of which create human capital, might need to be viewed as investment rather than consumption under this scenario. Social capital is a further area where the ONS produce data which could fit methodologically into this process.

As part of wider international discussion about these data, the UK is a leading participant in the newly formed UN Network of Economic Statisticians. Sessions are being planned in spring 2022 to discuss the implications and key barriers in going ‘Beyond GDP’ with economic statistics. The UK will be joint-leading, with the USA, a series of sessions on measuring capital including human and natural capital, which will help address the challenges outlined here.

How effective has the Government’s response to the recommendations of Sir Charles Bean’s Independent Review of Economic Statistics (2016) and Professor Sir Partha’s Dasgupta Review of the Economics of Biodiversity (2021) been to date?

Bean Review: The ONS has been working to address the recommendations of the Review since 2016, from strategic management of these economic statistics through to detailed methodological improvements.

Focusing on the key recommendations, the ONS has:

improved engagement with external experts through the establishment of the Economic Experts Working Group;
improved engagement with academic researchers through establishing the ESCoE research centre, which has greatly enhanced the co-ordination of research into measurement matters, the development of a PhD pathway for those wishing to focus their research on economic measurement and putting in place an international conference which has boosted the UK’s reputation in this field;
improved internal capability through extensive recruitment of economic skills, increasing recognised economist numbers from 40 to around 200;
tackled methods issues relating to the innovative frontier of the economy, particularly relating to the digital economy, such as telecommunications;
implemented world-class double deflation methods for National Accounts production;
established a regular on-line time-use survey, providing cheaper and more frequent data than available in any other country in the world;
and funded research into Beyond GDP matters, such as natural capital, human capital, and the household satellite account.

Dasgupta Review: The Review had a broad audience, including government, academia and beyond. As the leaders on natural capital accounting, the ONS agreed with HM Treasury to undertake additional work in the remainder of FY2020/21 to accelerate the natural capital accounts enhancements.

Our 2021 publications added estimates for:

carbon sequestration in UK seas;
value of fish capture linked to the sustainability of those fisheries;
and longer trips for tourism were added to our recreation value.

Other work this year, accelerated by the additional funding and yet to be published, includes:

improvements to our work estimating the impact of public green space on house prices;
developing models to estimate annual changes in pollination effort;
developing Supply and Use tables to understand how natural capital feeds through to the rest of the economy;
experimental estimates of the physical and mental benefits of outdoor recreation;
updating our air pollution removal models;
producing the first UK Extent and Condition Accounts which describe the areas of different habitats and their environmental condition;
developing methods to estimate the physical degradation of natural assets separate from the expected flow of value.

We anticipate undertaking further work which would contribute to the response to the Review in the coming years. We intend to publish an updated UK natural capital accounts roadmap later in 2022 to give stakeholders clarity about our plans.

How could Professor Dasgupta’s conception of ‘inclusive wealth’ be made operational as an economic measure?

Professor Dasgupta’s proposals would enable us to understand whether, for example, cutting down a woodland to build a school delivers a net gain or a net loss to society’s ‘inclusive wealth’. Operationalising this is likely to mean bringing together high-quality measures of capital stocks capturing productive, human capital and natural capital, as a minimum[3]. We are working with academics to develop our initial work on a single statement of the overall stock of capital assets, beyond the usual limits of the National Balance Sheet, a part of the National Accounts.

However, current statistics face some noticeable challenges in fully delivering Professor Dasgupta’s vision. In particular, the ‘accounting prices’ concept[4] proposed in the Review is methodologically and operationally complex.

There are also practical considerations, as inclusive wealth encompasses and extends beyond economic activity covered in the National Accounts. As the Spectrum framework shows, measuring the UK’s inclusive wealth would radically extend beyond existing frameworks for the three capitals and expand on stock-flow consistent accounting found in the National Accounts.

To address this, the ONS is commissioning research from leading academics via ESCoE and engaging with other National Statistics Institutes and other International Organisations.

How is the Office for National Statistics’ work on the measurement of national well-being and on the development of natural capital accounts contributing to the development of the Government’s macro-economic policy?

Government departments are best placed to advise how they use ONS outputs to inform their decision-making. However, we regularly engage with users across government to understand their needs in relation to the statistics produced.

To what extent is the preparation of the UK’s national accounts governed by international standards for national government accounting? In the light of the Kunming Declaration of October 2021, what prospects are there for reform of the United Nations System of National Accounts (SNA) to assign greater importance to natural capital?

The UK produces its National Accounts in line with recognised international guidance developed by the UN and partner organisations, the System of National Accounts (SNA) (2008). As a key objective is maintaining international coherence and consistency so that statistics are reliable and comparable, we would not wish to change UK guidelines ahead of common international guidance.

However, international guidance is evolving at a rapid pace and the UK is actively engaged in this process. There has been intensive work internationally in recent years to both develop additional guidance on how to value natural assets and services in the form of the SEEA[5], and how this interacts with the SNA to ensure consistency.

The first commitment in the Kunming Declaration is to “implement an effective post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework”. Current drafts of that framework draw on the UN SEEA Ecosystem Accounts framework which underpins the Natural Capital Accounts. In that respect, satellite natural capital accounts will play an important role on this commitment. However, as most countries are yet to develop such satellites accounts, even under existing guidance, this commitment should also provide support for the wider development of natural capital accounts globally, and so a closer relationship between those accounts and the SNA methods. We are actively sharing our learnings on developing natural capital accounts with other countries.

In addition to the SEEA agenda, the UN is leading work to update the SNA, including a focus on better alignment with environmental and other data. Following investment via the Bean Review and the development of world-leading research capability both in ONS and ESCoE, the UK is one of a small number of countries who have been invited to be active in all of the relevant UN-run task-teams considering changes to the SNA and recent SEEA revisions.

These include addressing sustainability and well-being. The ONS is working to ensure changes to the guidance work which enable us to address the key challenges we have described above. Some changes could have significant effects, but current indications are that there is a strong international consensus to include either natural or human capital within the National Accounts.

How might the public, businesses, financial institutions, and the financial system react to any move away from GDP as the primary indicator of prosperity? What challenges could this present for policymakers, and how might these be overcome?

There are likely to be many different interpretations of ‘prosperity’. In some cases, GDP may well be the most appropriate measure, but other users may find other new and complementary measures better fit their needs, such as a new measure of stocks, such as inclusive wealth or measures of the flows of welfare arising from this wealth, like those developed by the ONS as part of its Spectrum framework.

Others may interpret ‘prosperity’ as better represented by wider measures of multiple data sources, covering economic, environmental, and social progress, such as may be represented by national wellbeing measures and the SDGs.

In all cases regular and as timely as possible publication of such statistics is required to inform debate and meet user needs. While the ONS’ ability to produce multiple high-quality measures is limited by its resources, we would be keen to gather wider stakeholder views on a common set of methods, data, statistics, and analysis to support as many users’ needs as possible.

Footnotes

[1] Noting that non-market activity delivered by the Government is included in the National Accounts.

[2] For example, In November 2007, the European Commission, European Parliament, Club of Rome, the OECD and the Worldwide Fund for Nature hosted the ‘Beyond GDP’ conference, with the objectives of clarifying which indices are most appropriate to measure progress and how to best integrate these into decision-making and promote their use in public debate. The starting point in this and other initiatives was the that Gross Domestic Product (GDP) alone was no longer the best way to measure a country’s progress and needed to be complemented by environmental and social indicators.

[3] Social capital is generally seen in this framework as an enabling asset that contextualises values attributed to the other capitals.

[4] Accounting Prices internalise the values of any externalities (positive or negative) inherent in observed transactions. In simple terms, the costs of carbon emissions from burning coal to produce electricity would be added to the price of electricity to consumers and businesses in the analysis so the full impact of decisions can be observed. This would be challenging as a large number of adjustments would need to be prioritised and calculated (should we address the health costs resulting from tobacco consumption for example), and other prices may already capture some component of these costs (in our coal example, if green taxes are applied to electricity producers we would need to calculate if these have fully accounted for the costs of pollution), which would need to be stripped out.

[5] System of Environmental-Economic Accounting 2012: Central Framework – final, official publication 2012, UN, EC, IMF, OECD and World Bank System of Integrated Environmental and Economic Accounting, United Nations, European Commission, International Monetary Fund, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and World Bank 2012

Annex A: ONS & measures of progress

The ONS has engaged with stakeholders, such as the OECD, to develop well-being measures, and in 2010 launched a four-year Measuring National Wellbeing (MNW) development programme to establish “an accepted and trusted set of National Statistics, which help people to understand and monitor national wellbeing”, after a national consultation. This framework, with 41 indicators across 10 domains, including the environment, has been used as the basis for proposals by a number of organisations, e.g. Carnegie UK Trust’s report Gross Domestic Wellbeing (GDWe): An alternative measure of social progress (Nov 2020).

We have also developed measures of personal wellbeing for the UK, known as the ‘ONS 4’. These questions cover a respondents’ life satisfaction, whether they feel things done in life are worthwhile, happiness yesterday and anxiety yesterday. We have published Personal and Economic Well-being on a quarterly basis alongside economic outputs, and as a response to the coronavirus pandemic are now publishing wellbeing data from the ONS’ Opinions & Lifestyle Survey on a two-weekly basis.

The ONS was heavily involved in developing indicators for the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which bring the economic, environmental, and social dimensions together. We lead on UK reporting as required by the SDG framework through a world-leading reporting platform, based on OpenSDG which the ONS developed with US partners and is currently used by over 30 countries, cities and regions globally. We have also continued to focus on our user research programme to understand and meet user needs and these activities have informed developments to both the UK website and Open SDG. As of December 2021, the UK platform is currently reporting on 83% of the 247 global SDG indicators, and we are currently testing approaches to measuring progress on the SDGs, a need identified by national and international stakeholders.

The ONS launched the prototype UK Climate Change Statistics Portal in October 2021, ahead of the COP26 UN climate talks. We worked closely with analysts from across a range of government departments to bring key climate change statistics into one place for the first time. The Portal is a ‘one-stop shop’ for climate change related statistics, including drivers like energy use and emissions levels, and provides clear, accessible, and accurate information.

Our economic statistics research team has also published theoretical and empirical papers, including developing the Spectrum ‘Beyond GDP’ framework, which seeks to bring in natural and human capital to deliver a measure of economic welfare that builds on the National Accounts. This work has been undertaken in partnership with the Economic Statistics Centre of Excellence (ESCoE), an academic research centre hosted by the National Institute of Economic and Social Research and delivered in collaboration with the ONS.

Office for National Statistics written evidence to the Environmental Audit Committee’s inquiry on ecosystems and biodiversity

Dear Mr Dunne,

I write in response to the Environmental Audit Committee’s request for evidence for its inquiry into Ecosystems and biodiversity, specifically addressing the Committees questions regarding the Office for National Statistics’ (ONS) work towards incorporating the Natural Capital Accounts and the Environmental Accounts into the wider national accounts.

The ONS has been working with and actively involved in developing international approaches in this area, and the following provides both a summary of where we are and avenues for progress:

(1) Have the Natural Capital accounts been incorporated into the wider UK Environmental Accounts as planned for 2020?

The Natural Capital Accounts tables were published as part of the Environmental Satellite Account within the Blue Book for the first time in 2020.

Our Natural Capital Accounts development work continues, improving the methods and range of services being estimated. Key development areas include improving the granularity (detail) of the accounts and how changes in environmental condition and their impact are incorporated.

We are also looking at expanding our ability to include natural and other ‘missing capitals’ – manufactured and social – within experimental ‘Inclusive Wealth’ measures as proposed in the Dasgupta Review of the economics of biodiversity, alongside figures from the traditional national accounts (as detailed below).

(2) What steps need to be taken to integrate the Environmental Accounts into mainstream national accounting?

The ONS recognises that user needs are evolving. There is increasing emphasis on stepping outside the traditional linear framework and exploring economic aggregates in a more cohesive manner by expanding into other domains, such as environment and social.

We compile the core UK national accounts in line with internationally agreed guidance in the European System of Accounts 2010 (ESA2010). This is in turn consistent with the UN’s System of National Accounts 2008 (SNA2008). While these ensure international comparability and quality of national accounts, they do not currently allow for the direct incorporation of environmental accounts into core national accounts.

We are actively involved in discussions regarding revisions to the System of National Accounts but at present, to remain comparable, we are not able to integrate the environmental accounts elements into the core national accounts. As the national accounts are an integrated set of stock and flow accounts, any such integration would need to capture both the stocks of environmental assets, but also the flows (positive and negative) associated with these.

The current international guidance does allow for Environment Satellite Accounts to interact with the core accounts, under the System of Environmental–Economic Accounting focussing on the environment, or other experimental outputs combining different elements and providing bespoke presentations as required. This enables us to use a similar framework and terminology to the core national accounts to bring economic and environmental data together for analysis and to better inform policy.

To reflect user needs, we are also developing our National Balance Sheet, which shows the wealth of the nation by non-financial and financial assets and the sectors that own them. Its many uses could include being a place for natural capital integration. These data are used to monitor economic performance, to inform monetary and fiscal policy, and for international comparisons. An annual publication and a National Statistic, this was developed to be broadly in line with SNA2008 and ESA2010.

We are also currently developing new and innovative frameworks for measuring the economy to meet the increased user demand for our statistics to move ‘Beyond GDP’. This includes the Spectrum framework, which seeks to extend the production and asset boundaries to include natural and human capital – as well as several other aspects of economic activity which currently fall outside of GDP, such as household production – to develop a measure of economic welfare that builds on the national accounts. Alongside this, the ONS is in the very early stages of exploring a possible workplan to respond to the Dasgupta Review’s call for a national measure of ‘Inclusive Wealth’, incorporating the market price of produced, natural, and human capital and also externalities associated with these.

For example, we are considering how to present a more unified presentation of the different estimates of capital stocks which the ONS already produces (e.g. productive capital, human capital, natural capital) on a consistent basis to help inform the public and decision-making.

(3) Is it possible to integrate natural capital accounting into the national accounts now?

We are working to develop our innovative frameworks building on the national accounts and extending beyond them. This includes new research via the Economic Statistics Centre of Excellence, called the ‘Spectrum’ approach, as mentioned above. We are also developing ‘Inclusive Wealth’ measures in response to the Dasgupta Review. Some of this work will require further funding, which we are exploring, and timelines are likely to be funding dependent.

The guidance on Natural Capital and the System of Environmental Economic Accounting are separate from the international guidance on the central framework for National Accounting. This does not restrict us developing experimental alternatives separate to the more traditional accounts.

The UK has developed a world leading set of statistics to measure our Natural Capital Assets in a way that is compatible with central framework concepts. If the international guidance were to be revised to permit full integration, taking a national accounts stocks and flows approach would be a significant and complex endeavour.

It should also be noted that our Natural Capital Accounts development aims to produce measures that are of use in a wider set of policy contexts beyond the national accounts. Over the last year or so, our Environment and Natural Capital Team has been able to use their datasets to, for example:

examine air pollution and mortality related to COVID-19;
assess outdoor recreation access through lockdown; and
produce the UK’s first Marine Natural Capital account, highlighting the potential scale of ‘blue carbon sequestration’ and comparing this with the value of fishing and fossil fuels.

I hope this submission is useful to the Committee, and please let me know if we can provide any further assistance to this inquiry or the Committee’s other work.

Yours sincerely,

Jonathan Athow
Deputy National Statistician and Director General, Economic Statistics
Office for National Statistics

Office for National Statistics response to Environmental Audit Committee’s report on Sustainable Development Goals follow-up: Hunger, malnutrition and food insecurity in the UK

Dear Ms Creagh,

I am writing to offer the Office for National Statistics (ONS) response to the Environmental Audit Committee report on the ‘Sustainable Development Goals in the UK follow up: Hunger, malnutrition and food insecurity in the UK’.

The Committee made two recommendations to ONS. Firstly:

“ONS should continue to develop its metrics to cover all SDG indicators. Government and civil society must work with ONS to ensure that Government is able to work from timely, UK-wide metrics to measure its performance, with sufficient disaggregation to identify areas of need. It should consider the existing data to determine whether it is fit for current purpose, and to ensure that it covers the outcomes of actions, rather than just outputs. Government should also ensure that it establishes specific mechanisms for action if performance is poor. The Government should show leadership by introducing an SDG impact assessment as part of the cost-benefit analysis undertaken by Government, or for politically strategic events such as the Queen’s Speech and Budget.” (Paragraph 138)

ONS welcomes this report and its recommendations. Sourcing and reporting data for all the SDG global indicators and making our data coverage more comprehensive to ensure no one is left behind is at the core of the ONS strategy for SDG reporting and in line with our wider statistical transformation plans.

Since I gave evidence to the Committee on 23 October 2018, we have continued our efforts to source the appropriate UK data for the global indicators, putting that data into context and making that data available to everyone. We are currently reporting data for 170 (70%) of the global SDG indicators, an additional 16 indicators compared with our position in September 2018. Over 40% of the global indicators reported contain at least 1 required disaggregation. All data are published and available to all via our National Reporting Platform (NRP).

We continue to work closely with stakeholders across government and civil society to ensure the best possible data are used to report progress towards the SDGs. This includes meeting on a weekly basis with SDG goal champions from across government to review data quality.

To reinforce the principle of “leave no one behind”, ONS has also partnered with the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data (GPSDD) and its global network. This reiterates our commitment for
1 January 2018, SDGs in the UK follow-up: Hunger, malnutrition and food insecurity in the UK report 2 National Reporting Platform improved and strengthened data breakdowns through the Inclusive Data Charter. We will work together to improve the quality, quantity and availability of inclusive data. For example, one of the biggest data disaggregation gaps for the UK is migrant status. In September 2017 ONS set out a comprehensive work programme utilising new powers under the Digital Economy Act to improve migration statistics that will deliver by spring 2020. We anticipate the outcome of this work will help fill SDG data disaggregation gaps.

Our second annual progress report for measuring the SDGs which outlines our developments and sets out next steps was published in November 2018. It provided an important update on: our assessment of data gaps at global indicator and disaggregation level, our progress towards the inclusive data action plan for developing new data sources and methods to increase data coverage, and plans for prioritising the work to fill data gaps.

“We recommend that the Government work with the Office for National Statistics to measure the potential impact that Universal Credit may have on rates of hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition in all its forms in pilot Universal Credit areas. To be effective this measure should account for the rates of hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition before and after the implementation of Universal Credit and compare these rates with areas where Universal Credit has not been applied.” (Paragraph 59)

ONS are committed to supporting the evidence needs of the UK government. We will continue to meet with government departments on a regular basis to determine their requirements for statistical support.

Goal 2 of the SDGs (Zero Hunger) requires the measurement of undernourishment, food insecurity and malnutrition. In respect of indicator 2.1.2 (prevalence of moderate or severe food insecurity in the population, based on the UN Food Insecurity Experience Scale (FIES), we have conducted a comprehensive review of relevant existing data from both official and non-official sources and are looking at options to fill any data gaps. Alongside this, we convened a roundtable on 25 February 2019 centred around the strong and growing user need for better statistics on food insecurity. The event brought together representatives from across government alongside civil society organisations which included the Independent Food Aid Network, Food Foundation and Feeding Britain.

At the event it was confirmed that the Department for Work and Pensions will be including food insecurity questions on the Family Resources Survey (FRS) – a development which was strongly welcomed by all stakeholders. Data will be collected throughout the year from April 2019 to March 2020 and we would expect the first set of results by end March 2021.

Participants welcomed ONS leading and convening the roundtable, finding it extremely valuable. I agreed we would look to host a follow-up event in September. I will of course keep the Committee updated on this work.

Yours sincerely,

Iain Bell Deputy National Statistician and Director General, Population and Public Policy Office for National Statistics

Office for National Statistics follow-up written evidence to the Environmental Audit Committee’s inquiry on Sustainable Development Goals follow-up: Hunger, malnutrition and food insecurity in the UK

Dear Ms Creagh,

While providing evidence at the Environmental Audit Committee on 23 October on Sustainable Development Goals, I promised to provide further information on a number of areas. These are set out below.

UN Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) statistics

SDG indicator 2.1.2 requires data on both ‘moderate’ and ‘severe’ food insecurity.

In September 2018, the UN FAO released data on severe food insecurity as provisional estimates which require further validation. The dataset does not include moderate food insecurity at this stage. Therefore, we are unable to update the SDG indicator. UN FAO plan to release the full dataset in Autumn 2019, when we will update the National Reporting Platform and notify yourselves and the Committee of the latest data.

Based solely on severe food insecurity, the estimate for the UK was 3.4% and covers the average of 2015-17. The previous estimate was 4.2% and covered the years 2014-2016. As two of the three years are in common between the estimates, caution should be taken in reading too much into changes due to the small sample sizes in any one year.

We have only one data point for SDG indicator 2.1.2 for both moderate and severe food insecurity which is 9.7% for the years 2014-16. This figure is comparable to the EU average.

You were also interested in international comparisons. Annex A illustrates estimates of moderate or severe food insecurity for those countries where comparable data exists. Estimates are derived from a sample survey and are subject to a margin of error which has been visualised as error bars on the graph. The proportion of people reporting food insecurity was highest in South Sudan and lowest in Japan.

As I outlined at the Committee, ONS need to get a clear picture of user need for the ongoing measure of this indicator and then establish the right administrative and survey mechanisms for doing this. We are urgently working on this and I will write to you when we have a clear path forward.

Indicators that require development of data sources

Our current assessment is that there are 6 indicators for which data sources need the most development, which are as follows.

1.1.1 Proportion of the population below the international poverty line. We have development work in progress on how to widen the coverage of our surveys beyond private households and on improvements to data related to homelessness.
1.5.2 Direct economic loss attributed to disasters. We require domestic agreement on the definition of disaster. The first meeting of an ONS chaired cross-government working group to determine this will be on 14 November 2018.
2.4.1 Proportion of agricultural area under productive and sustainable agriculture. There are currently no agreed international methods.
8.7.1 Proportion and number of children aged 5 – 17 years engaged in child labour. There needs to be further discussions with crime experts to produce relevant data for this indicator.
11.5.2 Direct economic loss, damage to critical infrastructure and disruptions to basic services attributed to disasters. Similarly, to 1.5.2, we require domestic agreement on the definition of disaster.
15.3.1 Proportion of land that has degraded. There are currently no agreed international methods.

We are always adding data to the National Reporting Platform and are currently reporting on 157 (64%) of all global indicators. In addition to the 6 indicators that need significant development of data sources, there are a further 81 indicators where we have assessed there are suitable data available for the UK but are still in discussions with topic experts to acquire that data and produce a suitable indicator to report to the UN. These can be found at Annex B.

The Committee may also wish to note that this week we published our second annual progress report for measuring the SDGs which outlines our developments and sets out next steps.

I hope the Committee finds this note helpful. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any further questions.

Yours sincerely,

Iain Bell, Deputy National Statistician and Director General, Population and Public Policy

Office for National Statistics oral evidence to the Environmental Audit Committee’s inquiry on Sustainable Development Goals follow-up: Hunger, malnutrition and food insecurity

On 21 September 2018, Iain Bell, Deputy National Statistician, gave evidence to the Environmental Audit Committee’s call for evidence to its follow-up inquiry on the Sustainable Development Goals in the UK.

A transcript of which has been published on the UK Parliament’s website.

Iain Bell’s follow up written evidence

Iain Bell’s letter regarding the Environmental Audit Committee’s report

Office for National Statistics written evidence submission to the Environmental Audit Committee’s inquiry into the role of natural capital in the green economy

Natural Capital Accounts

Depletion of natural resources

Measuring private investment in nature

Greenhouse gas emissions estimates

Measuring green jobs

UN environmental economy statistical framework review

Business & Individual sentiment & actions

Climate & Health

Other relevant ONS publications

Annex A: Public and business attitudes to the environment and climate change, Great Britain; 2023 and 2024: key points

Office for National Statistics correspondence with the Environmental Audit Committee on the role of natural capital in the green economy

Measuring green jobs

Greenhouse gas emissions (residence based) estimates

Natural capital accounts

Businesses

Individuals

Other relevant publications

Office for National Statistics correspondence to the Environmental Audit Committee regarding publication of climate change and wellbeing insights alongside GDP

Office for National Statistics written evidence to the Environmental Audit Committee’s inquiry on aligning the UK’s economic goals with environmental sustainability

Office for National Statistics oral evidence to the Environmental Audit Committee’s inquiry on aligning the UK’s economic goals with environmental sustainability

Office for National Statistics written evidence to the Environmental Audit Committee’s inquiry on aligning the UK’s economic goals with environmental sustainability

Environmental Audit Committee: Aligning the UK’s economic goals with environmental sustainability: Written evidence from the Office for National Statistics

Executive Summary

How does the way the Government currently uses GDP in setting macro-economic policy affect the development of environmental policy and of cross-departmental action to achieve the UK’s economic goals?

The Environmental Accounts

How could GDP, or other current measures of macro-economic activity, more fully account for human and natural capital assets? What are the challenges and/or opportunities in moving to a way of measuring economic progress which takes greater account of such assets?

How effective has the Government’s response to the recommendations of Sir Charles Bean’s Independent Review of Economic Statistics (2016) and Professor Sir Partha’s Dasgupta Review of the Economics of Biodiversity (2021) been to date?

How could Professor Dasgupta’s conception of ‘inclusive wealth’ be made operational as an economic measure?

How is the Office for National Statistics’ work on the measurement of national well-being and on the development of natural capital accounts contributing to the development of the Government’s macro-economic policy?

How might the public, businesses, financial institutions, and the financial system react to any move away from GDP as the primary indicator of prosperity? What challenges could this present for policymakers, and how might these be overcome?

Footnotes

Annex A: ONS & measures of progress

Office for National Statistics written evidence to the Environmental Audit Committee’s inquiry on ecosystems and biodiversity

Office for National Statistics response to Environmental Audit Committee’s report on Sustainable Development Goals follow-up: Hunger, malnutrition and food insecurity in the UK

Related links:

Office for National Statistics follow-up written evidence to the Environmental Audit Committee’s inquiry on Sustainable Development Goals follow-up: Hunger, malnutrition and food insecurity in the UK

Related links:

Office for National Statistics oral evidence to the Environmental Audit Committee’s inquiry on Sustainable Development Goals follow-up: Hunger, malnutrition and food insecurity