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Correction to Lords Written Answer

In my answer to the noble Lord Pearson of Rannoch's Question for Written Answer (HL11163) on 18 July (Official Report, col. WA 229), I asked the UK Statistics Authority to reply directly to a matter which fell under their responsibility. The authority has since identified an error in the answer that was given. I have therefore asked the authority to write to the noble Lord to correct the record. A copy of the letter is below. Letter from Stephen Penneck, Director General for ONS, to Lord Pearson of Rannoch, dated 5 September 2011. As Director General for the Office for National Statistics, I have been asked to reply to your recent Parliamentary Question to ask Her Majesty's Government when they expect the United Kingdom Balance of Payments 2010 to be published; and whether it will reflect exports and imports of goods and services which pass through Rotterdam and Antwerp. 11163 The United Kingdom Balance of Payments 2010 (including data for 2009) was published in 2010. It can be found at the following web link: http://www. statistics.gov.uk/STATBASE/Product.asp?vInk=1140. The United Kingdom Balance of Payments 2011 (including data for 2010) is to be published electronically on 1 November 2011. The Balance of Payments Trade in Goods data is produced by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) using data provided by Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC). HMRC are responsible for capturing and collating both non-EU data, using customs declarations (““Extrastat””), and EU data, via the Intrastat survey. For UK imports originating from the EU, the ““country of dispatch”” is recorded on the Intrastat survey form as the country in the EU from which the goods were originally sent to the UK. For UK exports, the ““country of destination”” is recorded on the Intrastat survey form as the final EU country the goods are destined for, even if the goods travel through other EU countries on the way. All Trade passing through Rotterdam and Antwerp is included in the United Kingdom Balance of Payments data and will be shown against the Netherlands and Belgium, respectively, where they are the originating country of dispatch (for UK imports) and/or the country of ultimate destination (for UK exports). Complications can occur in EU trade when dealing with the ““Rotterdam Effect””. Some goods might be declared at an earlier than (final) country of dispatch and/or destination. Principally, the ““Rotterdam Effect”” causes imports and exports to be attributed to the country of transit as opposed to the ““real”” partner country. Further detail on the ““Rotterdam Effect”” can be found at: https://www.uktradeinfo.com/pagecontent/documents/edicom_rotterdam_effect_2005.pdf.