Annex B: Roadmap into the UK National Accounts

As referenced in Chapter 6 [hyperlink] in preparation for the System of National Accounts (SNA) 2025, the Review has developed a high level ‘roadmap’ to incorporate quality adjustments into the UK National Accounts. This has been compiled as part of the Office for National Statistics (ONS) planning for implementation of SNA25 more widely. This roadmap will need to be maintained and updated in alignment with the final SNA25 implementation plans. The roadmap is available to download as a PDF.

Download Roadmap into the UK National Accounts (PDF, 165KB).

Roadmap footnotes

1. The column ‘Preparing for implementation’ reflects an interval of unspecified length. The precise length of this phase will depend on a range of factors including resourcing, the methods approval process of proposed changes, systems development and other factors impacting delivery.
2. National Statistician’s Committee for Advice on Standards.
3. A resourcing assessment will be carried out to determine the additional business-as-usual requirements for processing improvements in the UK National Accounts. 
4. This refers to developing statistical processing systems to produce cost weighted activity indices which form the basis of implied deflators for non-market output in the national accounts. 
5. UK National Accounts software development refers to changes that are required to existing national accounts processing systems to accommodate elements of the proposed improvements to non-market output volumes. 
6. The proposed changes may be implemented over a series of annual ‘Blue Book’ publications dependent on readiness and priority. 
7. The introduction of quality adjustment is one of a number of improvements associated with the implementation of the new System of National Accounts framework (SNA25) that will impact general government output volumes. The extent to and time frame under which ONS adopts and implements all parts of SNA25 is under review and will be communicated in the future. For further information, see UK Statistics Authority Chair Sir Robert Chote’s keynote address Reflections on the forthcoming System of National Accounts revision.
8. The development of the new Statistical Business Register (SBR) is intended to be a reliable and definitive register of UK businesses and will be used as the main sampling frame for business surveys conducted by ONS and other government departments. It will replace the current Inter-departmental Business Register (IDBR). 
9. Decisions on how to follow SNA 2025 are discussed by the National Statistician’s Committee for Advice on Standards for Economic Statistics (NSCASE), whose recommendations are then submitted to the National Statistician for final approval. 
10. SIC refers to the Standard Industrial Classification, and COFOG refers to the Classification of the Functions of Government.