FOI-2023-1073
You asked
Please provide your processes in selecting micro business for surveys and, particular, what safeguards are in place to ensure those with hardly any employees are not over burdened.
We said
Thank you for your request.
Most samples for ONS business surveys are selected from the Inter-Departmental Business Register (IDBR), which is a comprehensive register of businesses in the UK. The size of each survey sample is set at the minimum level needed to produce representative and accurate statistics to reliably inform Government, and other users. When selected for a survey a business will be required to submit a number of returns, whether annually, quarterly or monthly, for a fixed period based on the needs of the survey.
Businesses are selected based on the sector of the economy they operate in, and the number of people they employ. Generally, large businesses will remain in the sample for surveys because the information they provide is essential for our statistics. Medium and small sized businesses are usually selected for a set period of time, then rotated out of the sample and not re-selected until all similar sized businesses in the same sector have been sampled. Micro businesses, once they completed a survey for the required number of returns, will usually not be sampled again for a period of three years. However businesses out of rotation for surveys may still be selected for the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings which is an employee-based survey and the Business Insights and Conditions Survey (which is a voluntary not mandatory survey).