You asked
Having taken part in the ONS Survey I am disappointed as a tax payer to receive the same letter two days running. Knowing the cost of administration and handling of post this I see as a waste of taxpayers money - the big question has to be how many duplicated letters are despatched and at what cost.
We said
Thank you for your question regarding the issue of duplicate letters on the ONS survey you were asked to participate in. 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 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. It can also be the case that delays with the Royal Mail delivery service means that letters arrive on successive days without the planned interval. This is very unfortunate and not what we would want to happen. It is not possible to clarify how frequently these delays happen and how often households receive the same letter on successive days (nor what the cost of this is), as this would depend on households informing us of the issue.
What it is possible to be clear about is that 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 is the latest quarter where full costs are available, however a similar number of households have been invited to participate in this first quarter of 2021. 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: https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/bulletins/coronavirusandhomeworkingintheuk/april2020
COVID-19 Infection Survey, UK: 19 February 2021: https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthandsocialcare/conditionsanddiseases/bulletins/coronaviruscovid19infectionsurveypilot/19february2021
Coronavirus and the Social Impacts on Great Britain: 19 February 2021: https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthandsocialcare/healthandwellbeing/bulletins/coronavirusandthesocialimpactsongreatbritain/19february2021
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. The particular concern you highlight does reflect delays with our delivery service and it is not possible to quantify how many times this has happened and at what cost.