Scotland's marine economic statistics 2016

1. Introduction

This report presents estimates of the economic contribution (Gross Value Added^[1] and turnover) and employment of Scotland’s marine activities (hereafter referred to as the marine economy). It is the first year of publication and as such the report presents experimental statistics.

The marine economy can be considered as economic activity linked to the oceans, seas, bays, estuaries and other major water bodies, and the ecological and physical systems associated with them.

All of the economic data presented relates to the direct contributions of the activities to Scotland’s economy and not to the wider supply chain.

The majority of the economic information in the report is based on the Scottish Annual Business Survey (SABS)^[2]. SABS is derived from the Office of National Statistics (ONS) Annual Business Survey (ABS), and allows detailed analysis of the structure and performance of businesses in Scotland over the period 2008 to 2016. The ABS covers approximately two thirds of the economy. The main sectors not covered are the financial sector & parts of agriculture and the public sector.

Information for most of the marine economic sectors is extracted using selected Standard Industrial Categories (SIC) from SABS. The industry sectors selected are shown below. For the purposes of labelling charts and discussing findings, the abbreviated names shown in the right hand column have been used as shorthand for the full SABS SIC codes.

Table 1: SIC codes and abbreviations used in this report

Economic data for fishing and aquaculture is sourced from Marine Scotland statistics and business level data collected to meet the European Commission’s Data Collection Framework requirements (DCF)^[3]. The sources and methods used in the report are set out in Annex B: Methodology and source data.

Sectors such as marine renewable energy and marine research and development also contribute to the Scottish economy, although comprehensive data covering these are currently limited.

The economic values provided for each industry are:

• Gross Value Added (GVA) - this represents the amount that individual businesses, industries or sectors contribute to the economy. It is the value generated by any unit engaged in the production of goods and services less any intermediate inputs into the production process.
• Turnover - defined as total sales and work done. This is calculated by adding together the values of:
  • sales of goods produced
  • goods purchased and resold without further processing
  • work done and industrial services rendered
  • non-industrial services rendered.
• Employment - a point in time estimate of the number of full and part time employees on the payroll plus the number of working proprietors employed on a set day in September. Total Employment is a head count and not a Full Time Equivalent (FTE) measure. This distinction is particularly important when comparing sectors as some of them have high levels of part time employment (e.g. Marine Tourism).

Each section of the report presents :

• The industry sector in a national context;
• A time series of turnover, GVA and employment;
• Supporting information about each sector, where it is available and
• A geographic breakdown, where it is available and not disclosive.

To provide the national context, GVA and employment values are considered as a proportion of the Scotland total:

• the Scottish GVA, taken from the National Accounts Scotland
• Scottish employment, taken from the Business Register and Employment Survey

The source and notes for each table are explained in the Annex B: Methodology and source data. Only notes that are specific to the individual table are shown beneath each table.

Throughout the report, prices are shown adjusted to 2016 prices.

The information is available in spreadsheet format for further analysis and as a summary topic sheet presenting a top level summary of the latest year of marine economy data.

1.1 Reference dates

The latest year of data in this economic statistics publication is for 2016. Time series are presented for 2008 to 2016. SIC codes changed in 2007, so data before 2008 is not comparable with this series. SABS figures for 2016 were released in June 2018.

To enable meaningful comparison of monetary values over time, all values have been adjusted to 2016 prices. Links to the ONS deflation tables used for these calculations are given in Annex B.

Web links to other relevant online information are provided in the References section and explanations of the terms used are presented in the References and Glossary section.