GOV.UK Spend Factors CADv2025 - methods and details

Summary

Source Documents

The emission factors are sourced from the UK Government’s annual carbon footprint statistics, which include greenhouse gas and carbon dioxide emission factors broken down by industry (SIC) category (source: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/uks-carbon-footprint)

The dataset was developed with methodological support from the University of Leeds. The University of Leeds logo is used to represent this dataset in the Carbon+Alt+Delete factor library.

The publisher is identified in Carbon+Alt+Delete as GOV.UK Spend Factor to avoid confusion with the activity-based dataset from the UK Government (i.e., GOV.UK GHG Reporting Factors). This is a distinct dataset with a different scope, unit, and methodology.

Methodology Readout Notes

General Methodology

The GOV.UK Spend Factors dataset provides spend-based emission factors, allowing organisations to estimate emissions from expenditure data when activity-level data is not available. Factors are expressed per unit of monetary spend (GBP) and are broken down by Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) category.

Emission factors are read directly from the source dataset for two separate columns:

• CO2 intensity: Carbon dioxide emissions only, per GBP spend by SIC category (referred to in the source documents as co2_sic_multipliers)
• CO2e*: Non-CO₂ greenhouse gases only, derived as the difference between total GHG and CO₂-only multipliers (referred to in the source documents as ghg_sic_multipliers − co2_sic_multipliers)

Approach to Base Years and Validity Periods

The source data has a publication lag: figures for data year Y are published approximately 3 years later, in year Y+3. Carbon+Alt+Delete applies a matching 3-year time shift, using source data year Y for reporting validity period Y+3.

No inflation adjustment is applied. The monetary values in the source are used as-is for the assigned validity period. The time shift is purely positional — it reflects the publication lag, not a price-level correction.

Annual updates are expected but not guaranteed. When a new publication is released, the latest data year will be added and assigned to its corresponding validity year (data year + 3).

Data Considerations and Notes

General Content Notes

• Spend-based factors are an approximation method. They should only be used when more granular activity data (quantities of energy, fuel, materials, etc.) is unavailable.
• Factors are denominated in GBP. Expenditure in other currencies must be converted to GBP before applying these factors. No currency conversion or purchasing power parity adjustment is included in this dataset.
• Because no inflation adjustment is applied, the monetary unit of the factor corresponds to the price levels of the source data year (e.g. 2022 GBP for the v2025 release). Users with expenditure data in nominal GBP for the reporting year should be aware of this price-level mismatch.
• The dataset covers UK and England consumption. It may not be representative for spend occurring outside the UK.
• SIC category granularity varies. Users should map their spend categories to the most appropriate SIC code available in the dataset.
• No greenhouse gas split by individual gas is available in the source. Only CO₂ and total GHG multipliers are provided. No biogenic CO₂ split is available.