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:

• Forestry Commission (FC), Natural Resources Wales (NRW) and Forest Service (FS) administrative records of removals from FC/NRW/FS woodlands;
• the Private Sector Softwood Removals Survey for softwood removals from private sector woodlands and
• deliveries of hardwood to wood processing industries (see below) for total hardwood removals.

There is no source of data for hardwood removals from private sector woodlands, so these are estimated to be:

• deliveries of hardwood to wood processing industries (see below) less
• hardwood removals from FC/NRW/FS woodlands.

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:

• the Sawmill Survey;
• the Wood Panel Industries Federation (for wood-based panels);
• the UK Forest Products Association (for integrated pulp and paper mills);
• the Confederation of Paper Industries (for paper production);
• the Survey of Round Fencing Manufacturers;
• the Private Sector Softwood Removals Survey (for softwood deliveries to woodfuel);
• shavings manufacturers;
• companies believed to export roundwood and/or chips.

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 Methodology note: UK wood production 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 2016 and earlier years have been previously published. They are however subject to revisions from those published in “UK Wood Production and Trade: 2016 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: 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 Eurostat’s “Forestry in the EU and the World 2011”:
http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/documents/3217494/5733109/KS-31-11-137-EN.PDF.

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.

Release schedule

Provisional figures for 2017 will be released on 17 May 2018 in “UK Wood Production and Trade: 2017 provisional figures”.

Final figures for 2017 will be released on 27 September 2018 in “Forestry Statistics 2018” and “Forestry Facts & Figures 2018”.