The Office for National Statistics is the UK’s largest independent producer of official statistics. These span from industry and trade, through to housing and personal finance.
Most (though not all) ONS datasets are made available under the Open Government Licence (OGL), allowing free use, adaptation, and redistribution of ONS statistics — including for commercial purposes. And it is rightfully trusted by businesses, individuals, and local authorities across the UK.
But how useful is the data alone for commercial use? Well, the short answer is that it depends, both on your use case and the level of granularity required. This is less a question of ONS data’s accuracy and much more about what you want to do with the information.
What the ONS does (and does not) cover
At first glance, the ONS covers a lot. Landing on the homepage, you’ll see figures around UK employment, population growth, inflation, and GDP.
- Labour market and employment
- Population and demography
- Business and industry
- Trade and investment
- Education and skills
- Innovation and R&D
- Economic activity
Where the ONS falls short is at company level. It will not give you firmographic data, such as named companies, growth-stage tracking, and a company’s investment history. Nor does it offer real-time business changes, including leadership changes, funding rounds, spinout activity, or intellectual property.
That’s not strictly a shortcoming — it reflects the ONS’s purpose as a civic tool, designed to provide broad, reliable context. But when you need to act on that information, more targeted data is required.
In short, the ONS provides comprehensive, credible, and contextual data — but it’s only published periodically and designed for high-level analysis.
If you’re trying to track companies, measure impact, or drive business engagement, you’ll need to look elsewhere. Especially if you’re looking for the latest data.
This is where proprietary data comes in, usually offered by private company data providers (like Beauhurst).
The alternative: proprietary data
Unlike public datasets, proprietary platforms (like Beauhurst) are built with company-level activity in mind.
This makes them inherently more useful for commercial use, as they offer a more dynamic, real-time view of the business landscape, structured around the questions that commercial, academic, and public-sector teams actually need answering.
A practical example of this is GVA, or gross value added.
Spotlight on GVA
Gross value added (GVA) is a key measure of economic contribution. The ONS calculates GVA by aggregating employment income and other production-related earnings. This offers useful regional insights — but without company-level detail.
At Beauhurst, we use the income approach (GVA(i)) to calculate GVA at the individual company level. Essentially, this means adding employee wages and EBITDA, giving a direct view of an individual firm’s contribution to the economy.
Because we hold detailed financial data for thousands of companies, we can generate GVA estimates as soon as new accounts are filed.
This granular, timely data means far more precise insights, helping users pinpoint which businesses are driving growth in specific sectors or regions — something that simply isn’t possible with ONS data alone.
