UK public service productivity grows 0.3% as output outpaces inputs

UK total public service productivity grew by 0.3% in the year to June 2026, the ONS said on Friday, as growth in output outpaced growth in the resources used to deliver it.

The Office for National Statistics said the comparison is with the previous four quarters, and that output rose 2.0% while inputs rose 1.6%.

Productivity here means output per unit of input: if output grows faster than inputs, more is being produced for each unit of resource used.

The 0.3% rate is unchanged from the previous quarter, but it is well below the peak of 1.3% reached in the year to September 2025.

It is the lowest annual growth rate since the year to September 2024, when productivity rose 0.1%.

Healthcare did better than the whole, with productivity up 0.7% in the year to June 2026 as output grew 2.2% and inputs grew 1.5%.

Growth in healthcare productivity for the year to March 2026 was revised up to 0.6% from the 0.4% first published, as output was revised to 2.5% from 2.1% and inputs to 1.9% from 1.8%.

On provisional annual figures, total public service productivity in 2025 was 2.9% below the 2019 level before the pandemic.

That follows growth of 0.7% in 2024, which was not revised, and of 0.5% in 2025, which was revised down from 0.9%.

The ONS said the 0.4 percentage point downgrade to 2025 came because upward revisions to inputs were larger than those to output.

It said the revisions mainly reflected new data in the UK National Accounts Blue Book, including higher inputs for publicly funded services delivered by independent sector providers in social protection and health, and higher healthcare output.

The ONS also changed how it accounts for price changes in publicly funded social protection services delivered through the independent sector, which pushed up estimated inputs for that area.

The quarterly figures are classed as official statistics in development and are subject to revision, and the ONS said caution is needed when comparing them with earlier annual estimates.

The annual estimates are accredited official statistics, but they run to 2023 only, because of a two-year time lag in the data.

The quarterly series is meant to be a timelier guide to where the annual figures are heading, according to the ONS quality and methodology note.

The ONS said its estimates for 2024 and 2025 should be treated with caution until accredited annual figures for those years are available.

It added that inputs tend to differ more between its annual and quarterly estimates than output does, and that the gap is larger in later periods such as 2025.

For 2023, for example, the quarterly method puts growth in total public service inputs at 0.8%, against an accredited annual estimate of 1.1%.

The quarterly figures do not currently account for staff absenteeism in labour estimates, which the annual accredited estimates do.

The ONS also stressed that the measure covers productivity only: it does not measure value for money or the wider performance of public services.

The next release is due in February 2027.