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Scotland's People: results from the 2001/2002 Scottish Household Survey
Volume 8: Technical Report
1. Introduction
The Scottish Household Survey (SHS) is a major cross-sectional survey, commissioned by the Scottish Executive in 1998 to provide reliable and up-to-date information on the composition, characteristics and behaviour of Scottish households, both nationally and at a sub-national level. Data from four years of the survey, covering 1999-2002, are now available.
From the outset, it was intended that the data should be made publicly available for secondary analysis. The aim of this document is to provide potential users and other interested parties with a detailed account of the survey methodology and the contents of the questionnaire. Information on the data from 1999 to 2001 has previously been published in Volumes 4 and 6 of this series. This document relates to the data for 2001 and 2002.
The Technical Report has the following structure. The remainder of this first section rehearses the background to and objectives of the survey. Section 2 outlines the sample structure and design; Section 3 covers data collection methods and instruments, focusing on issues such as the use of Computer Aided Personal Interviewing (CAPI), and questionnaire structure and coverage; and Section 4 examines response rates and the achieved sample profile and addresses issues relating to weighting and analysis. Section 5 provides information about confidence intervals and complex standard errors. Appendix 1 gives information about the Scottish Mosaic classification system used to stratify the sample and Appendix 2 contains a summary copy of the survey questionnaire.
1.1 Background to the survey
The specific aims of the survey are as follows:
- To provide household and individual information previously unavailable in Scotland, particularly to support the work of the Scottish Executive's transport, housing and social justice policy areas and the work of the Scottish Parliament.
- To permit disaggregation of such information both geographically and in terms of population sub-groups (such as families with children or the elderly).
- To allow the relationships between social variables within households to be examined. This will support cross-departmental and inter-departmental policies such as those on social justice.
- To allow early detection of national trends.
- To allow detailed follow-up surveys of sub-samples from the main survey sample, if required.
Following a competitive tendering exercise, the contract to undertake the survey between 1999 and 2002 was won by a consortium bid from NFO Social Research and MORI Scotland.
The arrangements for the management and development of the survey during the first four years of the survey have had three main elements.
An Advisory Group, comprising senior Scottish Executive professional staff, representatives of key Development Department policy customers, Convention of Scottish Local Authorities (COSLA), Communities Scotland, Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations (SCVO) and an academic survey expert is responsible for ensuring that the survey effectively addresses the identified information needs.
A Technical Group, comprising Scottish Executive and COSLA research and statistics professional staff was established to manage the development and implementation of the survey.
Due to the cross-cutting nature of the survey, a Network Group was established - including administrators, researchers and statisticians within the Scottish Executive who deal with the topics about which the survey is collecting information, together with representatives from COSLA, Communities Scotland and the General Register Office for Scotland.
The survey's Project Manager, who is responsible for the day-to-day running of the survey, can be contacted at the Scottish Executive (see back page for details).
Although the sampling for the survey is based on a two-year sweep, key results are made available on a more regular basis, along with a more detailed Annual Report. Details of the eight results Bulletins published, the Annual Reports for 1999 to 2002 and other Scottish Executive publications of SHS results such as Transport Statistics bulletins, can be found at the back of this publication or on the SHS website ( www.scotland.gov.uk/shs). In future, results will be released on a quarterly basis and will be accessible via the SHS website.
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