Up-to-date national statistics still months away

The release of up-to-date statistics on the size of Guernsey's population and economy are still months away according to Policy and Resources (P&R), after problems with the revenue service.

President of P&R Lindsay de Sausmarez said she was concerned about delays to the publication of "important national statistics".

Issues at the revenue service have been well-publicised, after the States Chief Executive Boley Smillie admitted a multi-million pound IT transformation project at the service had delivered little to no benefits.

Deputy de Sausmarez said she could not give a firm date for when the data would be available.

In an update to the States of Guernsey in June, de Sausmarez said: "The Committee will soon be able to confirm a timetable for the publication of fully up-to-date national statistics so I will keep the assembly updated."

Delays to the production of these statistics have been criticised by politicians, including the President of the Committee for Home Affairs Marc Leadbeater who said it was difficult to review the island's population regime without up-to-date information.

De Sausmarez said despite this "committees continue to have a substantial evidence base on which to make policy decisions.

"Notwithstanding that, the position would obviously be better with the delayed datasets brought fully up-to-date, which is why completing this work remains a high priority."

Data showing the island's inflation, house prices and stock, travel and visitor statistics, and the results of expenditure surveys have been published this year.

However the latest population data for Guernsey is from 31st December 2023 and showed the population was 64,781.

De Sausmarez said despite the delays "we have far more up-to-date population statistics than other places have, where they rely on a traditional census alone.

"We also have whole-population information on topics, such as household incomes and housing stock, which most other jurisdictions don't have access to."

The last figures on GDP for the island, also from 2023, showed it was estimated at £3,488 million, which was 5% higher than the estimate for 2022.

De Sausmarez said the States was working to ensure the data was complete and in the required format.

"That work on reconciliation and checking is taking place now and we hope it will be completed within the next couple of months.

"We cannot give a firmer completion date at this stage..

She said she expected completing the work would "take a few weeks, rather than months, to prepare, review and publish the updated statistics".

She added the priority was to provide "key socio-economic indicators" such as GDP.

But de Sausmarez said: "It will take several months to re-establish the regular production of all of the reports...

"Data and analysis is already doing as much work as possible in parallel.

"Most of the necessary adaptations to the rolling electronic census IT system have recently been completed and are being tested using the data currently available."

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