Under the Bank of England Act 1998, we can request data from financial firms in the UK. This includes data on firms’ balance sheets, profit and loss statements, and other related items.
This data is important for a number of reasons. It feeds into national datasets such as the UK National Accounts. It helps us set interest rates and monitor the health of the UK financial system. And it supports the government to shape policies based on real data.
If you’re a new financial institution or an existing reporter, check your reporting requirements and view deadlines for all returns.
Any financial institution with permission from the Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) to accept deposits in the UK has to send us statistical data. This includes all banks and building societies.
New businesses will be told what their obligations are once the PRA has approved their application to accept deposits.
You can see a list of institutions in the UK banking sector required to submit statistical returns.
Everyone needs to submit the balance sheet (BT) and eligible liabilities (ELS) returns.
What else you need to submit depends on the nature and scale of your business – check the reporting thresholds for detailed submission criteria or email dsdcompliance@bankofengland.co.uk for help.
You can check how your data is stored and used in our policy and procedures on confidentiality of data.
Returns are submitted once a year, twice a year, every quarter or every month.
For the BT, BG, C1, ELS and PL returns, there are 2 reporting cycles, with some firms required to submit less frequently than others. Check the reporting thresholds for details.
For all returns, data should be reported as at the last day of the reporting period (including weekends and bank holidays).
Note: not all deadlines apply to all firms.
Deadlines for 2026 will be released in October 2025.
| Reporting period | Returns due | Reporters impacted | Deadline (5pm UK time) | Concessionary deadline (5pm UK time) |
|---|
Notify us as soon as possible if you identify an error in your reporting or can’t meet a deadline.
Depending on the problem we may make recommendations to ensure timely and accurate submissions in future.
You can view more about our enforcement approach and penalties in sections 38 and 39 of The Bank of England Act 1998.
All our statistical returns are defined in a single data point model.
You need to implement the relevant statistical taxonomy in your IT system and submit in a XBRL format, which is an international standard for reporting financial data.
You can choose to stay on an earlier taxonomy if there are no changes in the latest taxonomy that will affect your reporting.
| Document | Description | Last updated |
|---|---|---|
| BoE statistics taxonomy – known issues (XLSX) | A list of issues identified with our taxonomy, including status updates and temporary solutions (where relevant) | 17 Nov 2023 |
| BoE statistics taxonomy filing manual (PDF) | Rules on how we’re applying the XBRL specifications | 25 Apr 2022 |
| About this taxonomy | Introduces the Issuing and Paying Agents (IPA) return - no changes that impact other reporting requirements. Please see statistical notice 2022/20. |
|---|---|
| Effective date | November 2023 will be the first reporting month under this taxonomy (documents last updated October 2022). |
| Title | Description |
|---|---|
| BoE statistics taxonomy release note 1.3.0 (PDF) | An overview of key points and changes in this release |
| BoE statistics taxonomy 1.3.0 (ZIP) | The machine-readable package required to compile statistical returns, plus the associated validations to be met |
| BoE statistics data point model (DPM) 1.3.0 (ZIP) |
A folder containing two documents: 1. reporting requirements for all returns annotated with the dictionary concepts that define each data point 2. a data dictionary defining all concepts used in statistical reporting |
| BoE statistics validations 1.3.0 (XLSX) |
Business validations for cross-checking data points within and between returns |
| BoE statistics change log public working draft (PWD) 1.3.0 to 1.3.0 (XLSX) |
Changes between the draft and finalised versions of 1.3.0 |
| BoE statistics change log 1.2.4 to 1.3.0 (XLSX) |
Changes between the 1.2.4 and 1.3.0 taxonomy versions |
| BoE statistics taxonomy - sample instance 1.3.0 (ZIP) |
Sample XBRL files containing random data for illustrative purposes |
From December 2022, the Bank of England requests submissions in XBRL, not XML. The platform for submitting returns also changed to BEEDS.
The following documents were made available to help firms with these changes:
Version 1.2.4
| About this taxonomy | Reflects minor changes to validations following the publication of version 1.2.0, which introduced the full suite of statistical returns being migrated to XBRL |
|---|---|
| Effective date | Used for all statistical reporting on BEEDS from 1 December 2022 |
Use the documents below to get an introduction to preparing returns, check definitions of common terms and view data standards, such as the standardised list of countries we use.
Completed returns should be submitted using the Bank of England’s Electronic Data Submission Portal (BEEDS).
There are instructions on how to use BEEDS.
| Document | Description | Last updated |
|---|---|---|
| General notes and definitions (PDF) |
An introduction to preparing returns and definitions of common terms | 24 Apr 2024 |
| Classification of accounts guide (PDF) | Instructions on how to assign customers and other entities to the correct economic or industrial sector groupings, plus a list of data standards used in our returns | 24 Apr 2024 |
7 October 2024
Statistical notice 2024/12 − Bank of England (BoE) Levy Classification
beedsqueries@bankofengland.co.uk
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