Business insights and impact on the UK economy (original) (raw)
The impact of challenges facing the economy and other events on UK businesses, including financial performance, workforce, trade, and business resilience.
3 July 2025
This release has a headline-only format and is accompanied by our full dataset.
1. Main points
- In late June 2025, more than a third (37%) of businesses with 10 or more employees reported they had some form of concern about their supply chains over the next 12 months, up 5 percentage points from late March; the most reported concern was international conflict at 19%, up 6 percentage points over the same period.
- 60% of businesses reported in late June 2025 that they were not concerned about the impact climate change may have on their business; this is up 3 percentage points from late March and the largest proportion reported since the question was introduced in late September 2022 (46%).
- Approximately one in five (21%) businesses reported that they are currently using some form of artificial intelligence (AI) technology in late June 2025, up 11 percentage points since the question was first introduced in late September 2023; for businesses with 250 employees or more, the proportion was higher at 36%.
- When asked in late June 2025, around one in seven (14%) businesses reported they were planning to adopt some form of AI technology within the next three months; up 2 percentage points from late March and the largest proportion reported since the question was introduced in late September 2023.
- Approximately one in six (16%) trading businesses reported they had no cash reserves in late June 2025, although broadly stable with late March, it is the largest proportion recorded since this question was introduced in late June 2020; in contrast, 26% reported they expect their cash reserves to last more than six months, also broadly stable with late March.
- In late June 2025, 12% of businesses with 10 or more employees reported that they were affected by the United States tariffs in the previous month, broadly stable compared with late May; the most reported impact was businesses experiencing additional costs, at 6%.
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These are official statistics in development, and we advise caution when using the data. The Business Insights and Conditions Survey (BICS) questions and topics are regularly reviewed, and questions are often added, removed, or amended to reflect changing circumstances and analytical priorities.
2. Headline figures
The data presented in this bulletin are the final results from Wave 135 of the Business Insights and Conditions Survey (BICS), which was live from 16 to 29 June 2025.
Data reported within BICS bulletins and datasets are estimates that are subject to uncertainty, for example, sampling variability and non-sampling error. Further information on quality is available in our Business Insights and Conditions Survey Quality and Methodology Information (QMI), and we regularly update confidence intervals associated with the survey questions.
Single-site weighted regional estimates up to Wave 130 are available in our Business insights and impact on the UK subnational single-site economy: May 2025 article.
The percentage of businesses that reported they were trading in late June 2025 was 94%, with 84% fully trading, and 10% partially trading (for example, trading with reduced hours or staff numbers). Meanwhile, 3% of businesses reported "temporarily paused trading", and 3% reported "permanently ceased trading" as their business's trading status.
3. Data on the Business Insights and Conditions Survey
Business insights and impact on the UK economy
Dataset | Released 3 July 2025
Weighted estimates from the voluntary fortnightly Business Insights and Conditions Survey (BICS) about financial performance, workforce, prices, trade, and business resilience. This dataset includes additional information collected as part of the survey not presented in this bulletin. These are official statistics in development.
Business insights and impact on the UK economy confidence intervals
Dataset | Released 3 July 2025
Confidence intervals for weighted estimates from the voluntary fortnightly Business Insights and Conditions Survey (BICS) about financial performance, workforce, prices, trade, and business resilience. These are official statistics in development.
Access to microdata
You can access the microdata for Waves 1 to 134 of the Business Insights and Conditions Survey (BICS) through the Secure Research Service (SRS). The BICS microdata for each wave are released on a rolling basis in the week following the publication of each wave. The microdata are made confidential and do not disclose information on any specific business.
Only researchers accredited under the Digital Economy Act, as explained on the UK Statistics Authority website are able to access data in the SRS. You can apply for researcher accreditation using the People and Projects Service (PPS). For more information, please see our guidance on the Integrated Data Service (IDS) website.
To conduct analysis with microdata from the SRS, a project application must be submitted to the Research Accreditation Panel (RAP), as explained on the UK Statistics Authority website. Project accreditation applications should be submitted using the Project Accreditation Service for SRS (PASS). For more information, please see our guidance on applying for an accredited research project.
To use the SRS, you must access it through the appropriate safe setting. For more information on the full range of safe setting options, please see our guidance on accessing data securely.
Making our published spreadsheets accessible
Following the Government Statistical Service (GSS) guidance on releasing statistics in spreadsheets, we will be amending our published tables over the next couple of publications to improve the usability, accessibility and machine readability of our published statistics. If you have any questions or comments, please email us at bics@ons.gov.uk
4. Glossary
Reporting unit
The reporting unit is the business unit to which questionnaires are sent. The response from the reporting unit can cover the enterprise as a whole, or parts of the enterprise identified by lists of local units.
Private sector businesses
The Business Insights and Conditions Survey (BICS) is a survey of private sector businesses, meaning that the public sector is not sampled. Some businesses are also excluded; please see the Coverage section of this bulletin for more information.
5. Data sources and quality
More quality and methodology information (QMI) on strengths, limitations, appropriate uses, and how the data were created is available in our Business Insights and Conditions Survey (BICS) QMI, which was updated on 10 October 2024.
The BICS is voluntary, and the results are official statistics in development. More information is available in our Guide to official statistics in development.
Download this table Table 1: Sample and response rates for Wave 133, 134 and 135 of the Business Insights and Conditions Survey
The results are based on responses from the voluntary fortnightly BICS, which captures businesses' views on financial performance, workforce, prices, trade and business resilience. The Wave 135 survey was live for the period 16 to 29 June 2025. For full details of the survey questions used, see our Business Insights and Conditions Survey questions: 16 to 29 June 2025 article.
Coverage
The BICS sampling frame is based on the same industries as our Monthly Business Survey (MBS). The MBS covers the UK for production industries only, and Great Britain for construction, retail and services industries. The MBS is an important input to the output measure of gross domestic product (GDP), which includes monthly GDP.
For detailed information on the industries covered by the MBS and BICS, see our GDP(o) data sources catalogue. The following are some industries that are excluded from MBS and BICS:
- agriculture
- oil and gas extraction
- energy generation and supply
- public administration and defence
- public provision of education and health
- finance and insurance
For more information on the methodology of producing the BICS, such as weighting, please see our Business Insights and Conditions Survey (BICS) QMI report.
Strengths and limitations
More quality and methodology information (QMI) on strengths, limitations, appropriate uses, and how the data were created is available in our Business Insights and Conditions Survey (BICS) QMI.
6. Related links
7. Cite this statistical bulletin
Contact details for this Statistical bulletin
Business Insights and Conditions Survey (BICS) team
bics@ons.gov.uk
Telephone: +44 1633 560479