National Statistical

The picture the Office for National Statistics (ONS) paints of how the economy is faring would not be possible without businesses supplying their data to us. James Benford describes the key themes of a recent exercise to better understand the needs and experience of businesses as both contributors and users of ONS data. 

Through 74 ONS business surveys, high-quality data are collected. These underpin a wide range of statistics including GDP​, employment, wages, inflation​ and trade​. They are crucial to the monitoring of the UK economy and inform a wide set of critical decisions taken by companies themselves, across government and beyond.  

Some 2.5 million questionnaires are sent out each year to a sample of around 345,000 businesses.  We know we ask a lot, which is why a key focus of our strategy is to improve the respondent experience, which will help both to reduce the burden on businesses and to improve the quality of the data they send us.  

Our approach is built on key themes including: 

• the consolidation and integration of our business surveys, to reduce duplication and burden, whilst improving efficiency and coherency across our statistics. 

• modernising our processes and technologies; we are delivering new innovative methods for data collection, reducing reliance on legacy technologies and automating manual processes to reduce risks and improve efficiency. 

• Strengthening our relationships with businesses through a new engagement model, to build trust and a mutual understanding. 

We recently worked with Better Statistics to convene a roundtable discussion with various groups representing businesses in the UK1 

Here is a summary of the information we shared, the themes that were discussed and the next steps we set out. 

Improving our Business Register 

We updated attendees on one of the ONS’s biggest projects: replacing the Inter-Departmental Business Register with a new Statistical Business Register (SBR). The SBR will broaden coverage of businesses in the UK, particularly smaller businesses and the self-employed, by incorporating the full Companies House population and HMRC Self-Assessment Data. This will double the sampling frame from 3 million to 6 million businesses. Implementing the SBR will enable key programme milestones, including incorporating the updated Standard Industrial Classification, SIC2026, by March 2027. Six surveys have now been sampled using the SBR and we aim for all surveys to use SBR frames by March 2028 ahead of implementing core elements of the new internationally agreed System of National Accounts (SNA25) from 2030. 

Business engagement 

We have continued to grow our Large Cases Unit​, which now manages 12 large and complex multi-national groups. Across these groups we collect data for 185 business units who account for around 6% of turnover collected on the Monthly Business Survey. Strong relationships with these businesses have supported improved methods for measuring globalisation in the National Accounts, as well as providing reductions in burden and improved data quality.​ We also outlined how we have expanded the account management model across the broader collection operation, which covers a further 110 business units. This has led to notable improvements to response rates, data accuracy and efficiency.  

Digital collection 

The full suite of business prices surveys was moved to digital-by-default collection in 2025. Around 90% of questionnaires across ONS’ survey portfolio are now collected digitally and we are working to a digital first approach for remaining surveys. We will next be turning our attention to the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings and the Business Register and Employment Survey.​ 

ONS approach to measuring the modern economy 

A central theme from the discussion was the need to modernise the system of classifications and statistics more broadly to capture the modern economy.  The new International and Macro-Economic Statistical Standards (IMSS), which countries are targeting for 2030, will be an important improvement; better capturing the contribution of data to the economy, cloud computing and AI.  In the UK, we plan to take an iterative approach and look for opportunities to release experimental statistics early. Using the SBR, we will adopt an updated set of industry classifications which is a key milestone to begin working through implementation of the change across our suite of economic statistics.  

Purpose of business surveys 

Many businesses – particularly smaller ones – would value greater information and clarity on why they are asked to provide data and how it supports national statistics and policy decisions. We will explore what more we can do here, as a lack of clarity can contribute to concerns about burden. Participants suggested that better communication, more accessible explanations of the Statistics of Trade Act, and clearer insights into “what’s in it for me” could make a significant difference.  

Providing business with the data they want  

There were a range of views expressed about what would help and we remain committed to exploring these further. The expansion of the business register was welcomed as an important step to improve coverage of the UK population, but participants encouraged us to continue exploring how we can better reflect small and medium-sized enterprises across surveys and outputs. 

Reducing burden on business 

The volume of surveys businesses receive – not just from us but from a wide range of organisations – was, understandably, an issue raised. There was strong support for increased use of administrative data sources, such as HMRC and other departmental datasets, wherever feasible. While we explained the challenges (including timeliness and data not designed for statistical purposes), attendees supported our future strategy to reduce duplication and consolidate surveys, making better use of the data businesses already provide.  

We will continue to strive to ensure we use the correct channels and fora for engagement and are interested to hear further suggestions to shape our engagement and improvement plans for business surveys and statistics.   

 

*The roundtable was attended by  

British Chambers of Commerce, Forum of Private Business and Micro Business Alliance, Institute of Directors, Confederation of British Industry, Federation of Small Business