You asked
Could you please tell me how much it cost (including preparation, printing admin and actual postage) to send out items 1, 3 and 4 to all the people that it was sent to.
Original letter telling me that I was going to get a letter
Actual letter giving details of how to do survey
- Reminder letter in case I had not done it
- Another reminder letter.
Please justify again for me the costs in financial and green terms of the survey that I did as it stands and also how can it now be justified with the UK census coming shortly?
We said
Thank you for your question regarding the cost of the letters that were sent to households asking them to participate in our online Household Study. The respondent communications strategy for this online survey has been developed based on extensive research which has provided evidence that multiple contacts by letter to households helps ONS to obtain responses from as many households as possible. The more households that take part, the higher the quality of the statistics we can produce.
Our research shows that sending a prenotification letter (Letter 1) prepares people to take part in the survey and they act sooner when they receive the invitation letter (Letter 2), allowing for timely data collection. Two reminder letters (Letters 3 and 4) also provide a boost to response allowing those who have not yet had the chance to complete another opportunity to do so. Reminders are only sent to households that haven't taken part in the survey at the time that those letters are printed, so not all households will receive all 4 letters. There are occasions however when households are sent a reminder letter when they have already declined to take part by calling our Survey Enquiry Line (number included in the letter) or when they have competed the survey but the reminder letter crosses over. We are developing our systems to try to ensure sure that this doesn't happen in the future.
There were a total of 452,695 households across the UK that were invited to participate in the survey between October and December 2020, and the cost of sending all letters was £1,333,641. This breaks down as follows:
- Pre-notification letter - £316,222
- Invitation letter - £406,997
- First reminder - £307,169
- Second reminder - £303,253
The data from this survey allows ONS to produce reliable and accurate statistics for use by the Government, including data relating to the COVID-19 pandemic. Some households that take part in this survey are also invited to take part in further studies related to the pandemic, the COVID-19 Infection Study, relating to infection rates and antibodies, or the Opinions Survey which has measured the impact of COVID-19 on people, households and communities in Great Britain. The data we collect from households invited to take part in the survey has been of great importance to producing accurate and timely statistics relating to the COVID-19 pandemic across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, which has in turn helped to inform Government decision making.
Examples of the use of such data can be found on the ONS website:
Coronavirus and Homeworking in the UK: April 2020
COVID-19 Infection Survey, UK: 19 February 2021
Coronavirus and the Social Impacts on Great Britain: 19 February 2021
This survey collects a more extensive suite of information to the Census which is a snapshot of life in England and Wales at a point in time, and is used for different purposes. Like many of our other surveys this online Household survey is currently designed to be continuous to provide data on a more regular basis than the Census. This is important for helping to understand changes in society.
We trust that this adequately explains the value of the data that ONS is currently collecting and our reasons for sending more than just one letter to encourage participation in our surveys. We are committed to delivering value for money and we continuously monitor our response survey response rates and review our engagement strategy to make sure it is appropriate.