Dear Alastair
Research and Development Statistics for Scotland
Thank you for your letter of 28 November 2022 setting out the impacts from ONSās project to redevelop its Business Enterprise Research and Development (BERD) statistics on Scottish Governmentās āBusiness Enterprise Research and Development Scotlandā and āGross Expenditure on Research and Development Scotlandā statistics. I welcome your teamās openness and proactive engagement with us on this matter.
There are clear future potential benefits to ONSās planned redevelopment of its BERD estimates once fully implemented. However, given that Scottish BERD estimates used in these publications are sourced from the ONS BERD data and the uncertainty around the detailed breakdowns of the new BERD estimates, we agree with you that it is right to temporarily suspend the National Statistics status of these Scottish Government R&D publications.
We will continue to engage with your statisticians, via our Business, Trade and International Development team, and look forward to considering the restoration of National Statistics status once you are assured that the statistics can meet the standards expected by the Code of Practice for Statistics.
Yours sincerely
Ed Humpherson
Director General for Regulation