Where the numbers come from

Sources

Every figure on this site comes from a published official source, and every one is listed here with a link so you can check it yourself.

If a figure cannot be traced back to a source you can open and read, it does not belong on the site. That is the whole basis on which this thing is worth reading, so the list below is generated directly from the data the dashboard displays. It cannot fall out of step with what you see.

How current each figure is

Checked on 2026-10-01. Publishers release new figures on their own timetables, and a new figure only appears here once it has been read from the source and checked, so for a while after each release this site is behind. This section says where.

Newer figures published. For every card drawn from an Office for National Statistics time series, the series itself was checked: 20 are up to date and 0 have a newer period published than the one shown.

Probably due an update. Other cards whose newest reading is older than a figure of that kind is normally published: about four months for a monthly figure, seven for a quarterly one, and two years from the end of the period for an annual one. Some publishers run late or have paused a series, and a survey run every two years will appear here between rounds, so this is a prompt to check the source rather than a finding that a figure is out of date. Where the publisher has said why a series has not moved, the reason is given.

Government income and spending

The income and spending figures are built on the Office for National Statistics (ONS) public sector finances basis, so that income minus spending equals borrowing exactly rather than approximately. Composition detail comes from His Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC) receipts data, HM Treasury public spending analyses, and the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR).

Both years are published outturns. The Office for National Statistics describes the figures for the financial year ending March 2026 as provisional, so they can still be revised.

Pledge tracker

Pledge assessments draw on Full Fact's government tracker and House of Commons Library research briefings, both of which cite the underlying official data. Where no numeric target was ever set by the government, the tracker says so rather than inventing one to score against.

Licensing and attribution

Most of the data here is Crown copyright, published under the Open Government Licence version 3.0, which permits reuse with attribution:

Some sources sit outside that licence and are treated accordingly:

• Bank of England data, including the Financial Conduct Authority's joint lending statistics, is used under the Bank's own terms, with attribution on every card.
• The Trussell Trust holds copyright in its food bank figures. Individual figures are cited with attribution.
• Stock market indices are proprietary to their providers, such as FTSE Russell and S&P Dow Jones Indices. Their month end levels are shown as historical reference, each card naming the trademark owner, with no claim of affiliation or endorsement.

Checking a figure yourself

Click the source link under any card. It goes to the official release, not to a summary of it. Where a figure needed a judgement call, for example choosing between two published measures of the same thing, the card says so.

Official statistics are also revised after publication, sometimes years later. A figure here reflects what the source said when this data was compiled, and the snapshot date is shown in the footer. If you find a figure that no longer matches its source, that is worth telling us about, and the corrections section explains how.