RESEARCH / VERSION 1.1 / 16 OCTOBER 2026
England and Wales retail market, 2016/17
The review reports approximately £9.4bn of consumer spending.
| Field | Evidence |
|---|---|
| Reference period | 2016/17 |
| Coverage | England and Wales |
| Status | Published estimate |
| Source-check date | 2026-10-14 |
| Measure | Retail spending |
| Value | 9.4 GBP billion |
| Currency / price basis | Nominal/source-period prices; no CLA inflation adjustment |
| Publication date | 2020-02-27 |
| Reference period | 2016/17 |
| Substances covered | Opiates Crack cocaine Powder cocaine Cannabis Ecstasy |
| Method | Published demand-side calculation combining estimated user numbers with annual consumption frequency, quantities and prices. |
| Estimate family | home-office-2016-17 |
| Relationship to other estimates | total |
| Earlier estimate repeated / parent | No parent link asserted |
| Component: Opiates | 3.8 GBP billion |
| Component: Cannabis | 2.4 GBP billion |
| Component: Powder cocaine | 1.9 GBP billion |
| Component: Crack cocaine | 1.3 GBP billion |
| Component: Ecstasy | 0.04 GBP billion |
| Variant / component limit | These rounded components are already included in the total and are not independent estimates. |
| Uncertainty | No statistical confidence interval supplied in this record. |
Interpretation limits
2016/17 England and Wales estimate, not current UK turnover or criminal profit. Underlying Home Office revenue analysis was unpublished; uncertainty interval not supplied.
Sources
- Dame Carol Black: Review of Drugs, evidence pack (Home Office/PHE analysis) — Slides 61–62 (PDF pages 62–63)
Cite this record
Civil Liberties Action (2026). The illegal drugs economy: England and Wales retail market, 2016/17. Record economy-black-2016-total, version 1.1, 2026-10-16. https://cla-political-finance.copperchime4.chatgpt.site/databases/releases/2026-10-16-v1.1/records/economy/economy-black-2016-total.html
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