BICS weighted Scotland estimates: data to wave 62

End of the EU Transition Period

Businesses not permanently stopped trading were asked if they had any extra costs due to the end of the EU transition period.

Figure 7: Around a third (34.2%) of relevant businesses reported incurring no extra costs due to the end of the EU transition period. The most commonly reported additional costs are those associated with transportation (26.6%) and with changing supply chains (15.6%).

Source: Office for National Statistics – BICS – Weighted Scotland Estimates – Wave 62

Additional transportation costs have been the most commonly reported costs since May 2021 (Wave 30), but reports of these costs have dropped from their highest point in Wave 61 (29.8%). Notably, reports of costs due to changing supply chains have been increasing since Wave 52 (March 2022) from 4.8% to 15.6% and the estimated proportion of businesses reporting no extra costs has been falling since Wave 50 (February 2022) from 47.3% to 34.2%. This is the first time since the series began in Wave 27 (March to early April 2021) that changing supply chains has overtaken costs due to increased red tape.

Businesses were also asked if they intend to open any new branches or subsidiaries in the EU in the next 12 months, and only 1.1% of businesses reported that they were. This figure has remained broadly consistent since the series began in April 2021 (Wave 28).