Has the UK really become iodine sufficient?

In December, 2016, the Iodine Global Network (IGN) published its new map of global iodine nutrition based on median urinary iodine concentration (mUIC) in school-aged children.1 Notably, the status of the UK, which was classified as mildly iodine deficient in 2014–15 (mUIC 50–99 μg/L), had become adequate by 2016 (mUIC 100–299 μg/L).1 The reason for this apparently rapid improvement lies in the different data sources used; data that showed mild deficiency in 2014–15 came from spot-urine samples from 737 girls aged 14–15 years from nine UK centres (mUIC 80·1 μg/L),2 whereas the 2016 data were based on spot-urine samples from 458 boys and girls aged 4–18 years, which were collected in year 6 of the UK National Diet and Nutrition Survey (NDNS)