The UK’s departure from the EU as well as increased devolution have heightened the policy requirement for data on interregional trade. This paper develops a framework for interregional trade data collection and estimation in the UK by: (i) reviewing the academic literature and current international practise, (ii) contrasting the trade surveys currently deployed by the four nations of the UK, (iii) undertaking a series of webinars and interviews to explore businesses’ perceptions of trade surveys and (iv) illustrating how interregional trade statistics consistent with the national accounts can be constructed. We provide a number of recommendations for collecting interregional trade data including the introduction of a new survey or survey questions to capture trade flows between England and the remaining three nations of the UK.
