FOI REF: FOI/2023/5043
You asked
I have previously asked you what percentage of house sales you include in the initial release of the monthly HPI and you say you do not know the answer. You have just released Jan 2023s figure on the 22 Mar 23.
FOI questions:
The Inland revenues provisional seasonally adjusted estimate of UK residential transactions for January 2023 was 96,650. How many of these residential sales did you include in January's initial release of the HPI on the 22 March 23?
Where is the information on the web so that I can verify this myself?
Who audits the Office of National statistics to ensure your data on the House Price Index is always processed in a fair and equitable way?
We said
Thank you for your enquiry.
The Inland Revenue's provisional seasonally adjusted estimate of UK residential transactions for January 2023 was 96,650. How many of these residential sales did you include in January's initial release of the HPI on the 22 March 23?
The number of house sales included in the initial estimate of the UK House Price Index (HPI) are not made publicly available until two months later. This is because there is a delay between transaction completion and receipt of the data at ONS. The data collection delay mainly affects the most recent months and as such, the two most recent months are therefore omitted from this data to avoid reporting volumes that may be misinterpreted as indications of market activity.
However, we do report approximate initial estimate sales volumes in the HPI bulletin. In the January 2023 HPI bulletin, published on 22 March 2023, it was stated:
"The latest estimates for January 2023 are based on approximately 27,000 records for England, which currently represent roughly 41% of monthly property transactions, as published by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC). They are based on approximately 5,000 records for Scotland (73% of transactions) and approximately 1,000 records for Wales (45% of transactions). This represents the number of records that are available at the time of calculating the UK HPI and not the number of transactions that have taken place. As time progresses, more records will become available for January 2023, in line with our published revision policy."
Where is the information on the web so that I can verify this myself?
You can access this information in the "Sales volumes" sub-section, within the "Measuring the data" section of the latest HPI publication: UK House Price Index - Office for National Statistics (ons.gov.uk).
As above, the exact number of transactions included in the third (provisional) estimate of average UK house price in January 2023 will be made publicly available on 24 May 2023. On 24 May 2023, you will be able to access the January 2023 transaction volumes used in the UK HPI estimates released that day from the "UK House Price Index: data downloads March 2023" section on HM Land Registry's website: UK House Price Index: reports - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
As such, information for January 2023 is exempt under Section 22(1) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, whereby information is exempt from release if there is a view to publish the information in the future. As a central government department and producer of official statistics, we need to have the freedom to be able to determine our own publication timetables. This is to allow us to deal with the necessary preparation, administration and context of publications. It would be unreasonable to consider disclosure when to do so would undermine our functions.
This exemption is subject to a public interest test. We recognise the desirability of information being freely available and this is considered by ONS when publication schedules are set in accordance with the Code of Practice for Statistics. The need for timely data must be balanced against the practicalities of applying statistical skill and judgement to produce the high quality, assured data needed to inform decision-making. If this balance is incorrectly applied, then we run the risk of decisions being based on inaccurate data which is arguably not in the public interest. This will have an impact on public trust in official statistics in a time when accuracy of official statistics is more important to the public than ever before.
Who audits the Office of National statistics to ensure your data on the House Price Index is always processed in a fair and equitable way?
The UK Statistics Authority is an independent body at arm's length from government. The UK Statistics Authority has a statutory objective of promoting and safeguarding the production and publication of official statistics that 'serve the public good'. The collective mission of the official statistics system is to provide high quality data and analysis.
The Office for National Statistics is the executive office of the UK Statistics Authority. The Office for Statistics Regulation is the regulatory arm of the UK Statistics Authority. It assesses official statistics for compliance with the Code of Practice for Statistics, reports on system-wide issues and on how statistics are used, celebrating when the standards are upheld and challenging publicly when they are not.
In September 2018, the Office for Statistics Regulation designated the UK House Price Index as a National Statistic, in accordance with theStatistics and Registration Service Act 2007 and signifying compliance with the Code of Practice for Official Statistics.
Designation can be broadly interpreted to mean that the statistics:
Meet identified user needs
Are well explained and readily accessible
Are produced according to sound methods
Are managed impartially and objectively in the public interest
Once statistics have been designated as National Statistics it is a statutory requirement that the Code of Practice shall continue to be observed.
Further information is available in HM Land Registry's UK House Price Index guidance: About the UK House Price Index - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).