Marten,
The UK and DE have been counted by ULCC and DE-NIC, and the output collected at the NCC. As you will see, this has increased counts for both countries quite significantly, especially the UK.
The increase in UK figures you saw may not be due to the method of collection, but rather a real effect. Our own figures showed a substantial increase this month -- about 4,200 "real" hosts. (Our accounting of "real" hosts is always a bit more conservative than yours -- we identified 40636 this month, rather than the 43301 you saw. This is possibly because we have a better (local) understanding of what constitutes a duplicate?) We still have a considerable number of JIPS sites that have not yet delegated so I guess we'll carry on growing for a while yet... Regards, Bob Day