ONS Opens Sign-Up for 22 July Inflation Briefing Sessions

The Office for National Statistics is inviting organisations to register for 30-minute online sessions on 22 July, where participants can ask questions about the latest UK inflation data published that morning.

CPIH — the Consumer Prices Index including owner occupiers’ housing costs — stood at 3.0 per cent in the 12 months to May 2026, unchanged from April 2026 and still above the Bank of England’s 2 per cent target. The ONS posted details of the briefing sessions on its @ONS account, describing them as an opportunity to ask questions, seek clarification, and explore aspects of the published inflation data in more depth.

The sessions are organised by the ONS Consumer Price Inflation team and are deliberately kept to 30 minutes. Questions are expected to focus on published data and findings rather than methodology — a scope that some analysts argue limits how deeply participants can probe the construction of the indices themselves, including ongoing debates around the use of RPI and the choice of housing cost measures.

Producer price inflation figures for June 2026 are also scheduled for release at 07:00 on 22 July, making it a broad inflation day across both consumer and producer prices.

For Kent, the numbers matter in practical terms. CPIH at 3.0 per cent — compared with 4.2 per cent in the 12 months to July 2025 — reflects a falling but still elevated cost environment that feeds directly into interest rates, benefit uprating, wage negotiations and public spending decisions. Bodies such as Kent County Council, Medway Council, NHS Kent and Medway Integrated Care Board, and local chambers of commerce all rely on ONS inflation data for budgeting and planning.

The figures show how far conditions have shifted since May 2024, when UK inflation returned to the 2 per cent target for the first time since July 2021. But with CPIH still a full percentage point above that target, the 22 July sessions are likely to draw interest from anyone tracking how quickly price pressures are easing — and what the producer price data released the same morning signals about costs further down the supply chain.

Key information

• Register via the ONS website to secure a place at the 22 July inflation day stakeholder briefing
• Sessions last 30 minutes and focus on published data rather than methodology
• Producer price inflation for June 2026 publishes at 07:00 on 22 July 2026
• Enquiries about ONS consumer price inflation data can be directed to the ONS Consumer Price Inflation team