COINS: publishing data from the database

15 December 2011

Following the publication of the Whole of Government Accounts (WGA) 2009-10 on 29 November 2011, the raw data used by WGA has now been released.

All other data files that have been released remain available.

The data is available from data.gov.uk (opens in new window).

Additional COINS datasets

At the release of the COINS raw data in June 2010, the government committed to publishing additional datasets utilising the COINS raw data, to make the COINS raw data more accessible. In August 2010 we published the first of these datasets showing in year time series data.

The aim of these datasets is to make key parts of the COINS data accessible, manageable and comprehensible to the wider public, whilst maintaining a low level of aggregation. The datasets provide the means to make public spending data more directly accessible. Datasets for the time series and for the outturn to budget comparison can assist in interpreting the COINS raw data. At the same time users will be able to drill down behind previously released high level aggregates.

This in-year dataset is updated quarterly and can be accessed in both XLS and CSV format on the data.gov.uk website (opens in new window).

What is COINS?

COINS - the Combined On-line Information System - is used by the Treasury to collect financial data from across the public sector to support fiscal management, the production of Parliamentary Supply Estimates and public expenditure statistics, the preparation of Whole of Government Accounts (WGA) and to meet data requirements of the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

Up to eleven years of data can be actively maintained - five historic (or outturn) years, the current year and up to five future (or plan) years depending on the timing of the latest spending review.

COINS is a consolidation system rather than an accounts application, and so it does not hold details of individual financial transactions by departments.

You should be aware that OSCAR is due to replace the COINS system, data structures, process and management information tools in June 2012.

You can find more information in the OSCAR factsheet on the right hand side of this page.

Why are you doing this?

The release of COINS data was the first step in the Government's commitment to data transparency on Government spending. Further details are set in a recent letter from the Prime Minister to Cabinet colleagues (Cabinet Office website, opens in a new window)

Who might find the data useful?

COINS contains millions of rows of data; as a consequence the files are large and the data held within the files complex. Using these files will require some degree of technical competence and expertise in handling and manipulating large volumes of data.

It is likely that these data will be most easily used by organisations that have the relevant expertise, rather than by individuals. By having access to these data, institutions and experts will be able to process and present them in a way that is more accessible to the general public.

Downloading the data

The COINS data are provided in two files for each financial year; the ‘fact table’ and the ‘adjustment table’, with additional files of each type for each year of WGA data. The contents of these two files are explained in ‘What is COINS data?’.

The ‘fact tables’ are approximately 70MB. With a fast broadband link of 8mbps, it will take approximately 10 minutes to download this file. The ‘adjustment tables’ are approximately 40MB, and this will take approximately 5 minutes to download.

All files have been compressed. When decompressed the file sizes will expand significantly to sizes of around 5GB and 0.5GB respectively, with the WGA files being smaller.

The data are provided in either a txt file format (data released in 2010), or a csv file format (data released in 2011). The structure of the data is similar to a csv (comma separated variable) file with a string of characters being formed to represent each row, with each field separated by an ‘|’ in the data released in 2011, and ‘@’ in the data released in 2010.

We estimate that there are around 3.5 million rows in the ‘fact tables’, and around 500,000 rows in the ‘adjustment tables’, with the WGA related ‘fact tables’ containing c 1.2 million rows and around 70,000 rows in the ‘adjustment rows’. While the contents of the ‘adjustment tables’ can be loaded into Excel 2007, the ‘fact tables’ are too large for the Excel software. In order to read the data, they will need to be uploaded into appropriate database software.

In July 2010, the Treasury held a short seminar for organisations and individuals developing the released COINS data to enhance its usability to the public. The seminar provided further information on the coding structure employed, as well as information on how to derive key aggregates from the data. The PowerPoint slides used during the presentation are available to download.

Feedback

We welcome user feedback in relation to all of our data releases. Enquiries on the COINS data can be directed to: statistics-enquiries@hmtreasury.gsi.gov.uk.