Cost of producing inflation statistics, including HCIs

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2. https://www.ons.gov.uk/aboutus/transpare...

Dear Simon,

Thank you for your recent FOI request.

We apologise that our response to your FOI request is late.

We are currently verifying some of the data to ensure an accurate answer
to your query.

We will get back to you as soon as possible with a response.

Kind Regards

FOI Team

The Freedom of Information Team | UK Statistics Authority | Awdurdod
Ystadegau’r Deyrnas Unedig

@UKStatsAuth | [1][email address] |
[2]http://www.statisticsauthority.gov.uk

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Our Reference: FOI/2023/5003

Dear Simon

Thank you for your email requesting data pertaining to the cost of
developing HCIs.

I am writing to confirm that the Office for National Statistics has now
completed its search for the information which you requested and the
response can be found below. Please accept our apologies for the delay in
getting our response to you.

You asked:

At a speech on 9 March about economic statistics, the National
Statistician said that cost was a constraint on developing HCIs, ie
producing HCIs faster or in greater detail. Please can you set out the
annual costs of producing inflation figures over as many years as possible
(but at least five years), split into as many sub-components as possible
(survey, methods, production, development etc), and showing the proportion
of the total that is due to HCIs?

We said:

Thank you for your request.

The associated download is a granular split of expenditure on activities
most closely related to consumer prices inflation and the Household Costs
Indices (HCIs). Note this will not include all expenditure involved in the
production of inflation.  For example, it does not include central
business support or other teams whose main role is not consumer prices,
but who's output feed into the consumer prices statistics (such as housing
analysis and household expenditure).

The budget categories held do not map neatly to the sub-components in your
original request, but we have endeavoured to provide an approximate
mapping in the following table:

Requested sub-component Codes
Survey BB006, BB060
Methods/development BB005, BB008, BB013, BB018, BB020, BB205, BD802,
BD809, BD850, IA147, JR001
Production BB007, BB009, BB019

ONS budget codes were revised in the 21-22 financial year, and this
provides less granular detail. Most expenditure is now classified under
BB001 (which reflects a mixture of production and some continuous
development work) and BD850 (which covers much of our transformation
work). The increase in expenditure in financial year 22-23 reflects
additional funding for the ONS's work to [1]transform elements of consumer
price statistics.

We do not hold an estimate of how much of these costs related to the HCI.
The HCI uses many of the same inputs as other consumer price statistics,
so it is not possible to hypothecate costs between different statistical
outputs.

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The Freedom of Information Team

Office for National Statistics

For information on Coronavirus, please visit [2]ONS.gov.uk/coronavirus

References

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1. https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/inflation...
2. http://ons.gov.uk/coronavirus