United Kingdom
In the wake of the technological revolution that began in the last decades of the 20th century, labour-market demand for information-processing and other high-level cognitive and interpersonal skills have been growing substantially. Based on the results from the 33 countries and regions that participated in the 1st and 2nd round of the Survey of Adult Skills in 2011-12 and in 2014-15, this report describes adults’ proficiency in three information-processing skills, and examines how proficiency is related to labour-market and social outcomes. It also places special emphasis on the results from the 3rd and final round of the first cycle of PIAAC in 2017-18, which included 6 countries (Ecuador, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Peru and the United States). The Survey of Adult Skills, a product of the OECD Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC), was designed to provide insights into the availability of some of these key skills in society and how they are used at work and at home. The first survey of its kind, it directly measures proficiency in three information-processing skills: literacy, numeracy and problem-solving in technology-rich environments.
Les résultats économiques ont été solides jusqu’à la fin de 2016, à la faveur d’un environnement très porteur pour l’activité économique, d’une politique monétaire très accommodante et réactive et des marges de souplesse laissées dans la réalisation des objectifs budgétaires. Le rythme d’expansion économique a été constant et le PIB est supérieur de 9 % environ au pic enregistré juste avant la crise mondiale ; toutefois, les conséquences économiques de la sortie de l’Union européenne prévue en mars 2019 (Brexit) ont ramené la croissance en taux annualisé au niveau le plus faible observé dans les pays du G7 au premier semestre de 2017. La croissance, la grande flexibilité du marché du travail et l’abondance de l’offre de main-d’oeuvre ont fait reculer le taux de chômage à moins de 4.5 %. L’activité économique a été particulièrement riche en emplois. À 75 % de la population des 16-64 ans, le taux d’emploi et le nombre total d’heures travaillées n’ont jamais été aussi élevés, en partie à cause de l’immigration en provenance de l’Union européenne, qui a entraîné l’expansion du marché du travail.
As unemployment rates have reached historical lows across many OECD countries, it is important to focus on the economically inactive – that is people who are neither in a job nor seeking work. This paper reviews recent trends in economic inactivity across the OECD, focusing on places and people. The paper demonstrates the importance of moving beyond national averages to understand which regions and cities have higher levels of economic inactivity. It then looks at regional economic inactivity trends across cities in the United Kingdom (UK).
Under Action 14, countries have committed to implement a minimum standard to strengthen the effectiveness and efficiency of the mutual agreement procedure (MAP). The MAP is included in Article 25 of the OECD Model Tax Convention and commits countries to endeavour to resolve disputes related to the interpretation and application of tax treaties. The Action 14 Minimum Standard has been translated into specific terms of reference and a methodology for the peer review and monitoring process. The minimum standard is complemented by a set of best practices.
The peer review process is conducted in two stages. Stage 1 assesses countries against the terms of reference of the minimum standard according to an agreed schedule of review. Stage 2 focuses on monitoring the follow-up of any recommendations resulting from jurisdictions' stage 1 peer review report. This report reflects the outcome of the stage 2 peer monitoring of the implementation of the Action 14 Minimum Standard by the United Kingdom, which is accompanied by a document addressing the implementation of best practices which can be accessed on the OECD website.
The International Energy Agency (IEA) regularly conducts in-depth peer reviews of the energy policies of its member countries, a process that supports energy policy development and encourages the exchange of international best practices and experiences.
The United Kingdom is a global leader in decarbonisation, both in terms of actual emissions reductions and ambitions set out in five-year carbon budgets. The carbon price floor has supported coal-to-gas switching, which combined with a record investment in offshore wind and solar PV, is transforming the UK power sector.
By 2030, wind and solar are expected to reach above 50%, more than in any other country. Solutions for flexible electricity markets and technologies need to be scaled up. Coal and nuclear power capacity is going to retire and new nuclear faces a weak outlook, the contribution of natural gas to meet peak demand is likely to increase. The UK has been able to stabilise production from the North Sea. Given its long term decline, however, oil & gas imports are critical. Maintaining open energy trade with the Continent and the world has to remain a top priority.
The UK Clean Growth Strategy puts energy technology and innovation at the centre of its decarbonisation policy. The IEA underlines that the country’s offshore expertise is a strong basis for innovative technologies, such as carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) and also hydrogen, along with improving energy efficiency.
In this report, the IEA provides recommendations to help the country guide the transformation of the UK energy sector and to meet its ambitious targets.
This reliable source of yearly data covers a wide range of statistics on international trade of OECD countries and provides detailed data in value by commodity and by partner country. The first four volumes of International Trade by Commodity Statistics each contain the tables for six countries, published in the order in which they become available. The fifth contains seven countries and the sixth volume also includes the OECD country groupings OECD Total and EU28-Extra.
For each country, this publication shows detailed tables relating to the Harmonised System HS 2012 classification, Sections and Divisions (one- and two- digit). Each table presents imports and exports of a given commodity with more than seventy partner countries or country groupings for the most recent five-year period available.
Cette base de données annuelles couvre un large éventail de statistiques sur le commerce international des pays de l'OCDE. Elle constitue une source fiable de données en valeur par produit et par pays partenaire. Chacun des quatre premiers volumes des Statistiques du commerce international par produit présente les statistiques relatives à six pays, celles-ci étant publiées dès réception des données. Le cinquième présente sept pays et le sixième volume porte sur les deux groupements de pays de l'OCDE ; OCDE Total et UE28-Extra.
Pour chaque pays sont présentés des tableaux se référant aux sections et divisions de la classification Système Harmonisé SH 2012 (une et deux positions). Chaque tableau permet de visualiser à la fois les importations et les exportations des cinq années les plus récentes par produit pour plus de soixante-dix pays partenaires ou groupes de pays partenaires.
This report examines the local entrepreneurship ecosystem of the Coventry and Warwickshire region in the United Kingdom and its capacity to promote productivity upgrading and industrial renewal. It forms part of the OECD’s work stream on local entrepreneurship ecosystems and emerging industries. This work examines how policy at the local level can promote innovative start-ups, innovative scale-ups and innovation in existing enterprises for entrepreneurship and industrial diversification.
The Pensions at a Glance database includes reliable and internationally comparable statistics on public and mandatory and voluntary pensions. It covers 34 OECD countries and aims to cover all G20 countries. Pensions at a Glance reviews and analyses the pension measures enacted or legislated in OECD countries. It provides an in-depth review of the first layer of protection of the elderly, first-tier pensions across countries and provideds a comprehensive selection of pension policy indicators for all OECD and G20 countries.
Fan charts were pioneered by the Bank of England and Riksbank and provide a visually
appealing means to convey the uncertainty surrounding a forecast. This paper describes a
method for parameterising fan charts around GDP growth forecasts by which the degree of
uncertainty is based on past forecast errors, but the skew is derived from a probit modelbased
assessment of the probability of a future downturn. The probit-based fan charts
clearly out-perform the Bank of England and Riksbank approaches when applied to
forecasts made immediately preceding the Global Financial Crisis. These examples also
highlight weaknesses with the Bank of England and Riksbank approaches.
- The Riksbank approach implicitly assumes that forecast errors are normally
distributed, but over a long track record this is unlikely to be the case because
forecasters are generally poor at predicting downturns, which leads to bias and skew
in the pattern of forecast errors. Thus, the Riksbank fan chart is neither an accurate
representation of past forecast errors, nor is it a reflection of the risk assessment
underlying the forecast.
- The Bank of England approach relies heavily on the judgment of the members of
the Monetary Policy Committee to assess risks. However, even when they have
correctly foreseen the nature of future risks, the quantitative translation of these
risks into the fan chart skew has been too timid. Perhaps one reason for this is that
the fan chart prediction intervals based on historical forecast errors already appear
quite wide so that inflating them by adding skew may appear embarrassing (at least
ex ante).
The approach advocated in this paper addresses these weaknesses by recognising that
forecast errors are not symmetrical: firstly, this leads to more compressed prediction
intervals in the upper part of the fan chart (representing the possibility of under-prediction);
and secondly, using the large forecast errors from past downturns to calibrate downward
skew clearly supports a more bold approach when there is a risk of a downturn. A weakness
of the probit model-based approach is that it will not predict atypical downturns. For
example, in the current conjuncture it would not pick up risks associated with a ‘no deal’
Brexit or a global trade war. However, a downturn triggered by atypical events may be
more severe if risk factors describing a typical business-financial cycle are also high.
There is an urgent need to ensure that coastal areas are adapting to the impacts of climate change. Risks in these areas are projected to increase because of rising sea levels and development pressures. This report reviews how OECD countries can use their national adaptation planning processes to respond to this challenge. Specifically, the report examines how countries approach shared costs and responsibilities for coastal risk management and how this encourages or hinders risk-reduction behaviour by households, businesses and different levels of government. The report outlines policy tools that national governments can use to encourage an efficient, effective and equitable response to ongoing coastal change. It is informed by new analysis on the future costs of sea-level rise, and the main findings from four case studies (Canada, Germany, New Zealand and the United Kingdom).
The success of skills development activities through both on- and off-the job training often depends on the participation of employers. This OECD report on Northern Ireland, United Kingdom identifies a number of innovative programmes that aim to better engage employers in the design and delivery of training. It also looks at the role of local district councils in working closer with employers to better understand and address their skills challenges.
A key part of the project was the implementation of a survey to gather information from Northern Irish employers about their skills needs and barriers to apprenticeship participation. The report offers a number of recommendations for improving business-education partnerships in emerging sectors of the Northern Ireland economy.
This dataset comprises statistics pertaining to pensions indicators.It includes indicators such as occupational pension funds’asset as a % of GDP, personal pension funds’ asset as a % of GDP, DC pension plans’assets as a % of total assets. Pension fund and plan types are classified according to the OECD classification. Three dimensions cover this classification: pension plan type, definition type and contract type.
This dataset includes pension funds statistics with OECD classifications by type of pension plans and by type of pension funds. All types of plans are included (occupational and personal, mandatory and voluntary). The OECD classification considers both funded and book reserved pension plans that are workplace-based (occupational pension plans) or accessed directly in retail markets (personal pension plans). Both mandatory and voluntary arrangements are included. The data includes plans where benefits are paid by a private sector entity (classified as private pension plans by the OECD) as well as those paid by a funded public sector entity. Data are presented in various measures depending on the variable: millions of national currency, millions of USD, thousands or unit.
Wales (United Kingdom) considers the development of schools as learning organisations as vital for supporting schools to put its new, 21st century curriculum into practice. A growing body of research evidence shows that schools that operate as learning organisations can react more quickly to changing external environments and embrace changes and innovations.
This report aims to support Wales in this effort, gauging the extent to which schools have put into practice the characteristics of learning organisations and identifying areas for further development. It also examines the system-level conditions that can enable or hinder schools in Wales in developing as learning organisations. It offers a number of concrete recommendations for consideration by the Welsh Government and other stakeholders at various levels of the system.
The report will be valuable not only for Wales, but also to the many countries that are looking to establish collaborative learning cultures across their school systems.
This report contains the 2018 Peer Review Report on the Exchange of Information on Request of United Kingdom.
The paper provides an introduction to London’s context and the need for accessibility indicators. It overviews existing indicators developed and used by Transport for London, including: PTAL, ATOS (Access to Services) and catchment- based measures, as well as giving an introduction to TfL’s online web portal for connectivity assessment: WebCAT. There is also a review of calculation principles, a summary of user cases and an analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of each method. A second section describes indicators (e.g. PTAL incorporating cycling, and walking catchment analysis) that are currently under development as part of TfL’s commitment towards prioritising healthy streets and sustainable modes of transport. The final section focuses on challenges and opportunities identified during the development of these indicators.
Since the start of the Great Recession, labour productivity growth has been weak in the United Kingdom, weaker than in many other OECD countries. The productivity shortfall, defined as the gap between actual productivity and the level implied by its pre-crisis trend growth rate, was nearly 20% for output per hour at the end of 2016. This study assesses the UK productivity puzzle and discusses its possible determinants at the sectoral level. Most of the UK productivity underperformance is structural rather than cyclical. Half of the productivity shortfall is explained by non-financial services (with information and communication being the largest contributor), a fourth by financial services, and another fourth by manufacturing, other production and construction. All but non-financial services and the construction sectors contribute disproportionately to the productivity shortfall compared to their shares in overall output and hours worked of the UK economy. In non-financial services, large increases in self-employed with no employees, reduced matching of skills to jobs and a lower capital-output ratio may have been a drag on productivity. Stagnant productivity in the financial sector is mainly linked to reduced risk-taking and leverage, as reflected by declining total factor productivity following its steep increases in the run-up to the crisis. Greater substitution of labour for capital and weak corporate restructuring have both held back productivity improvements in the manufacturing sector. Some causes of the productivity puzzle pre-date the crisis, including low tangible investment, too rapid expansion of financial services, weak innovation in the manufacturing sector, and a secular decline of oil and gas industries.
This Working Paper relates to the 2018 OECD Economic Survey of the United-Kingdom (www.oecd.org/eco/surveys/economic-survey-united-kingdom.htm).
Cette base de données annuelles couvre un large éventail de statistiques sur le commerce international des pays de l'OCDE. Elle constitue une source fiable de données en valeur par produit et par pays partenaire. Chacun des cinq premiers volumes des Statistiques du commerce international par produit présente les statistiques relatives à six pays, celles-ci étant publiées dès réception des données. Le sixième volume porte sur les deux groupements de pays de l'OCDE ; OCDE Total et UE28-Extra.
Pour chaque pays sont présentés des tableaux se référant aux sections et divisions de la classification Système Harmonisé SH 2012 (une et deux positions). Chaque tableau permet de visualiser à la fois les importations et les exportations des cinq années les plus récentes par produit pour plus de soixante-dix pays partenaires ou groupes de pays partenaires.
This reliable source of yearly data covers a wide range of statistics on international trade of OECD countries and provides detailed data in value by commodity and by partner country. Each of the first five volumes of International Trade by Commodity Statistics contains the tables for six countries, published in the order in which they become available. The sixth volume also includes the groupings OECD Total and EU28-Extra.
For each country, this publication shows detailed tables relating to the Harmonised System HS 2012 classification, Sections and Divisions (one- and two-digit). Each table presents imports and exports of a given commodity with more than seventy partner countries or country groupings for the most recent five-year period available.