Dear Mike

Thank you for inviting OSR to review your practices around the preparation and release of information about revisions to estimates of GDP. I will ask my team to carry out and publish a short review, which we expect to cover the three areas outlined in your letter: 

  1. Processes and quality assurance involved in making revisions to GDP  
  2. Potential improvements to early estimates of GDP enabled through enhanced access to data 
  3. Communication of:
    • revisions to GDP 
    • the story behind the most recent set of revisions in particular 
    • uncertainty in early estimates of GDP  

We will extend our review to cover similar issues relating to a wider set of National Accounts measures as appropriate. 

I look forward to working with you and colleagues on this review. 

Yours sincerely  

Ed Humpherson
Director General for Regulation