Official Statistics

Quality report: Aggregates Levy Bulletin

Published 7 June 2021

1. Introduction

This quality report relates to the ‘Aggregates Levy (AGL) Bulletin’ National Statistics. The purpose is to provide users with information about the quality of the outputs as set out by the Code of Practice for Official Statistics.

The AGL Bulletin has been published bi-annually since December 2016 and on GOV.UK since June 2019.

Archive versions of the AGL Bulletin published on GOV.UK after June 2019 are no longer hosted on GOV.UK and are instead available via the UK Government Web Archive, from the National Archives.

Archive versions of the AGL Bulletin published between 2008 and August 2019 are found on the UK Trade Info website.

The bulletin contains statistics on historical receipts and liabilities for AGL.

Accompanying these statistics is commentary intended to explain trends to users and how these trends interact with external events, AGL duty rates and other AGL policies in the UK.

Included duty receipts statistics are up to the latest full month before the bulletin release. Statistics relating to liabilities are one month behind that of duty receipts.

Liabilities statistics relate to when traders accrue tax liabilities through the exploitation in the UK of rock, sand and gravel, and is due from any business that quarries, dredges or imports these products.

The bulletin is produced by analysts in the Knowledge Analysis and Intelligence (KAI) directorate of HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC). Thorough quality assurance (QA) procedures are followed for each bulletin before it is signed off by senior management, then sent to the HMRC GOV.UK communications team for publication.

2. Relevance

The AGL Bulletin contains data on historical liabilities, receipts and duty rates of AGL in the UK. The bulletin makes it clear that it contains information only about AGL which has been paid.

The AGL Bulletin is a National Statistics publication and contains a commentary section on recent patterns in total AGL receipts and receipts by products over the last 10 financial years (including the current year). It also contains a commentary section on Quarterly total AGL tonnage declared over the last 7 financial years.

The commentary and content of the bulletin are regularly reviewed to ensure they remain relevant to user needs.

3. Accuracy and reliability

The data used to produce these publications is exhaustive, and covers all AGL under UK jurisdiction which is subject to tax. This means that data on liabilities and receipts refers to all AGL declared legally, with the exception of exempt tonnage, which is not counted for this purpose as by definition AGL is not paid.

Deferments and late returns can influence the data used for the publications. For that reason, the last 3 months of data at any given time are labelled as ‘provisional’, although revisions tend to be minor. Where there are revisions they are clearly marked as ‘revised’, and information is given as to the reasons and scale of the revisions if appropriate.

4. Timeliness and punctuality

The bulletin is published one month after the end of the reporting period for receipts. That is, the bulletin relating to AGL received in January is published at the end of February. The bulletin takes around one week to produce, with the data not being available until after the middle of the month. The remaining time is spent quality assuring the information in the bulletin.

In line with the Code of Practice for Official Statistics, these statistics are pre-announced on GOV.UK.

HMRC also publishes an annual publication plan on GOV.UK.

There have been no incidents of late publication of the bulletin since the previous New Taxes Bulletins Quality Report was produced in 2013 which is available through the UK Government Web Archive from the National Archive.

5. Accessibility and clarity

The data is publicly available within the AGL Bulletin and is published at 9.30 am on the pre-announced date of release.

The AGL Bulletin commentary is published in accessible Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) format, as generated within internal UK government HTML Markdown software. The AGL Bulletin data tables which accompany the commentary are published in accessible Open Document Spreadsheet (ODS) format.

Accompanying the bulletin is a background and references document which includes:

• definitions for AGL

• details on how AGL is levied and paid

• methodology for producing AGL statistics

• statistical quality information, including HMRC’s rounding policy

• hyperlinks to relevant pages where bulletin users can find more information

There is also an historic AGL duty rates document.

Both historic duty rates and background and references are published in HTML format.

Following major changes in January 2021, substantial formatting changes were made to the AGL Bulletin to ensure alignment with accessibility regulations for digital content from public bodies as legislated within the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018.

This reformatting of the AGL Bulletin formed part of HMRC’s wider accessible documents policy. Changes made to the AGL Bulletin included:

• replacement of Portable Document Format (PDF) files previously used for statistics commentary with HTML documents for the same purpose

• migration of all AGL duties background, references and rates information from Microsoft Excel tables to HTML documents

• migration of data tables from Microsoft Excel to ODS format

• simplification of language used to avoid jargon and clear explanations used to describe all non-decorative features

An accessibility report was first produced to identify required format changes. The overriding aim of this reformat was to improve how perceivable, operable, understandable and robust the AGL Bulletin is for all users, in line with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.1) design principles for accessibility.

6. Coherence and comparability

By definition, there are no other sources that allow a comparison with the data in the bulletin (since HMRC is the only organisation which collects and estimates duty paid and the associated liabilities).

The data used to compile the AGL Bulletin comes from several sources:

• cash receipts and returns data are taken from the Enterprise Tax Management Platform (ETMP)

• tonnage declaration data is taken from information provided by traders on the Aggregates Levy return form AL 100 which are processed using Pentaho which is part of the Enterprise Data Hub (EDH)

Comparability over time of duty rates and receipts at constant prices is reliant upon the deflator used. HMRC uses the Inflation and price indices series published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), and values are therefore subject to any biases this series might present.

Liability statistics relate to when traders accrue tax liabilities through the provision of a service.

Data within the bulletin relates to the UK as a whole and cannot be disaggregated into lower geographical breakdowns, and are therefore not affected by changes in geographies.

7. Trade-offs between output quality components

Since the data relates to all AGL on which AGL is paid to HMRC, in general there have been no trade-offs which have necessitated balancing different aspects of quality.

8. Assessment of user needs and perceptions

The demand for the AGL Bulletin is measured by the number of unique page views which represents the number of visits during which the page was viewed at least once. Within the financial year ending in 2021, there were 266 unique page views.

Over time the AGL Bulletin has evolved as a result of information found out through consultations and surveys:

• there was a user engagement survey in 2010 which led to some changes to the bulletin (for example consolidating into one bulletin and including historical data)

• following this and the 2012 UKSA report, further changes were made to the bulletin, which included added commentary, graphs and background information

• in 2016, the frequency of the bulletin was then altered from quarterly to bi-annually as a result of a consultation

As a result of the recent consultation on the reduction and consolidation of HMRC statistics publications, the AGL Bulletin will be published within the ‘Environmental Taxes Bulletin’ annually from 30 June 2021.

9. Performance, cost and respondent Burden

The bi-annual update to the Bulletin takes up to 4 working days in total for the main analyst to complete and receive QA from other analysts, the team leader, and the person signing off the release. The annual cost, therefore, is around 8 days a year (4 days per bulletin completed 2 times a year).

There is no respondent burden since the data is taken from administrative sources which are used by taxpayers to make their usual returns to HMRC.

10. Confidentiality, transparency and security

Before going live, the bulletin is classified as pre-released National Statistics, and is therefore subject to a restricted protective marking when referred to in email correspondence and is subject to the Code of Practice for Official Statistics, which is strictly enforced.