Tools and Resources
Introduction
This page provides an overview of the sources for the timber statistics presented in Chapter 2; more detailed information is provided on the following pages.
The chapter covers wood production (removals) from UK woodland, and consumption and production by primary wood processors in the UK. The timber statistics presented cover both softwood (wood from coniferous trees such as spruce, pine and larch) and hardwood (wood from non-coniferous trees such as oak, birch and beech). Please refer to the Glossary for an explanation of the terms used.
Quantities of wood can be expressed in different units. Conversion factors can be used to convert between units.
Data Sources and methodology
Statistics on timber are obtained from a number of sources. For wood production (removals), data are compiled from:
There is no source of data for hardwood removals from private sector woodlands, so these are estimated to be:
Timber availability forecasts are obtained from the “50 year forecast of softwood availability” and the “50 year forecast of hardwood availability”, released in April 2014 and available at www.forestresearch.gov.uk/tools-and-resources/national-forest-inventory/.
Deliveries are estimated from the following sources:
Estimates are also provided by the Expert Group on Timber and Trade Statistics: www.forestresearch.gov.uk/tools-and-resources/statistics/about-our-statistics/expert-group-on-timber-and-trade-statistics/.
The www.forestresearch.gov.uk/tools-and-resources/statistics/about-our-statistics/methodology-and-outputs/ sets out the data analysis methods used to produce annual estimates of UK wood production.
Quality
Detailed information on the quality of the statistics presented in this publication is available in the “Quality Report: UK Wood Production and Trade” at www.forestresearch.gov.uk/tools-and-resources/statistics/about-our-statistics/code-of-practice/quality-of-official-statistics/.
Further quality information on FC Official Statistics, including separate reports for each of the industry surveys used in this release, is available at:
www.forestresearch.gov.uk/tools-and-resources/statistics/about-our-statistics/code-of-practice/quality-of-official-statistics/.
Revisions
Figures for 2017 and earlier years have been previously published. They are however subject to revisions from those published in “UK Wood Production and Trade: 2017 provisional figures” and previous publications, to reflect late updates to administrative or survey data. Further details on any revisions made are provided in the following pages.
Information on significant revisions to published statistics is provided in the quality report on UK Wood Production and Trade, available from our Quality web page at www.forestresearch.gov.uk/tools-and-resources/statistics/about-our-statistics/code-of-practice/quality-of-official-statistics/.
The Forestry Commission’s revisions policy sets out how revisions and errors to these statistics are dealt with, and can be found at: www.forestresearch.gov.uk/documents/4355/FCrevisions.pdf.
Further information
Most of these statistics are used to compile data that are sent to international organisations in the Joint Forest Sector Questionnaires, in some cases giving more detail than in this release. These returns are published as Official Statistics on the FC website; provisional figures in May and final figures in September/ October. The statistics are used by Eurostat Forestry Statistics, UNECE Timber Bulletins, and UN/FAO Forest Product Statistics and are published on the FAOSTAT database (https://www.fao.org/faostat/en/#data/FO). Summary results from the FAOSTAT database are provided in the International Forestry chapter.
The definitions used in this publication are consistent with the international definitions, as given in the Joint Forest Sector Questionnaire definitions, available at https://unece.org/forests/jfsq.
The United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) Committee on Forests and the Forest Industry (previously the UNECE Timber Committee) also collects, on an annual basis, estimates for the current year and projections for the following year of wood production, imports and exports. Results are available on the UNECE website (www.unece.org/forests/fpm/timbercommittee.html). Copies of UK returns for the UNECE Timber Forecast Questionnaire are available at www.forestresearch.gov.uk/tools-and-resources/statistics/statistics-by-topic/international-returns/unece-timber-forecast-questionnaire/.
The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (previously the Department of Energy and Climate Change) publishes an annual Digest of UK Energy Statistics (www.gov.uk/government/collections/digest-of-uk-energy-statistics-dukes). Chapter 7 of this digest covers renewable sources of energy including wood. Figures for wood use in renewable energy statistics take into account wood from all sources (including processed wood, recycled wood and imports), not just UK-grown roundwood.
Experimental Statistics
Included in the accompanying spreadsheets for this release of Forestry Statistics are experimental statistics for the destination of UK softwood removals by country in 2017.
For details on the sources and methodology, please refer to Experimental Statistics: UK Softwood Removals and Delivery by Country, 2015-2016, available at www.forestresearch.gov.uk/tools-and-resources/statistics/forestry-statistics/. Since the publication of these experimental statistics, additional questions, within the industry surveys (a source of data for these statistics), were expanded to ask for country breakdowns of specific data, namely, the volume of softwood roundwood sold for bioenergy and roundwood consumed for shavings.
These estimates are under development and continue to be labelled as “experimental statistics”.
Release schedule
Provisional figures for 2018 will be released on 16 May 2019 in “UK Wood Production and Trade: 2018 provisional figures”.
Final figures for 2018 will be released on 26 September 2019 in “Forestry Statistics 2019” and “Forestry Facts & Figures 2019”.
Chapter 2: UK-Grown Timber