Index of Services, UK: February 2023

• Monthly services output is estimated to have fallen by 0.1% in February 2023, this contrasts with a rise of 0.7% in January 2023 (upwardly revised from growth of 0.5%).

• The Index of Services (IoS) saw monthly falls in 7 of the 14 sectors; this was compared with falls in 3 of the 14 sectors during January 2023.

• The main sectors contributing to the monthly fall were education, which contributed negative 0.13 percentage points to the IoS with growth falling by 1.7%, and public administration and defence, which contributed negative 0.07 percentage points to the IoS with growth falling by 1.1%; this was partially offset by other service activities, arts, entertainment and recreation, and human health and social work activities, which each contributed 0.03 percentage points to the IoS in February 2023; these sectors increased 2.0%, 1.6% and 0.3%, respectively.

• The IoS is 0.2% below February 2020, which was the last month of “normal” trading conditions prior to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic; within the service sector there is a mixed picture with 8 of the 14 services sectors now above their February 2020 pre-coronavirus pandemic level.

• Services output grew 0.1% in the three months to February 2023, compared with the three months to November 2022, with information and communication and administrative and support service activities increasing by 2.8% and 2.4%, respectively, while human health and social work, education and transportation and storage saw decreases of 2.0%, 1.9% and 3.3%, respectively; these three industries have been affected by industrial action in recent months, but it is not possible to quantify to what extent.

• For further and detailed analysis of the effect on our monthly Index of Services estimate, please see our GDP monthly estimate, UK: February 2023 article published on 13 April 2023.

Data sources and collection

The Index of Services (IoS) is compiled using data from several different sources:

• the Office for National Statistics (ONS) Monthly Business Survey (44.4%)

• the ONS Retail Sales Inquiry (6.4%)

• the ONS Government Expenditure (20.1%)

• the ONS Households' Expenditure (15.3%)

• the ONS Finance Expenditure (7.8%)

• other sources (5.9%)

The Monthly Business Survey (MBS) data are published alongside this release in our MBS turnover of services industries dataset.

Data relating to the retail industry are broadly comparable with our Retail sales, Great Britain: February 2023 bulletin, published on 24 March 2023.

The GDP(o) methods and sources pages provide more information on the data that underpin these statistics; of particular note is our GDP(o) data sources catalogue.

The percentage of each data source is based on their gross value added weight. The GDP(o) methods and sources pages provide more information on the data that underpin these statistics; of particular note is the GDP(o) data sources catalogue.

From February 2018, value added tax (VAT) data have also been included across 64 production industries for small- and medium-sized businesses. For more information, see our VAT turnover data in National Accounts: background and methodology.

Quality and methodology

More quality and methodology information on strengths, limitations, appropriate uses, and how the data were created is available in our Index of Services QMI.

Economic statistics governance after Brexit

Following the UK's exit from the EU, new governance arrangements are being put in place that will support the adoption and implementation of high-quality standards for UK economic statistics. These governance arrangements will promote international comparability and add to the credibility and independence of the UK's statistical system.

At the centre of this new governance framework will be the new National Statistician's Committee for Advice on Standards for Economic Statistics (NSCASE). NSCASE will support the UK by ensuring its processes for influencing and adopting international statistical standards are world leading. The advice NSCASE provides to the National Statistician will span the full range of domains in economic statistics.

This includes:

• the National Accounts

• fiscal statistics

• prices

• trade

• the balance of payments and labour market statistics

Revisions to IoS

In line with the National Accounts revision policy, our bulletin (published on 13 April 2023), aligns with our latest GDP quarterly national accounts, UK: October to December 2022, published on 31 March 2023. Periods from January 2022 were open to revision in this Quarterly National Accounts release, with January 2023 open for revision in our Index of Services, UK: February 2022 bulletin.