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5. Notes and Definitions

5.1 General Points

In the tables, ".." indicates "not available", and "-" indicates "nil or negligible".

Where figures are rounded, a total which was calculated by adding together the "unrounded" versions of the underlying numbers, and then rounding the result, may appear to differ from the sum of its parts. Similarly, there may appear to be minor discrepancies in the case of percentages calculated from "unrounded" underlying numbers.

The underlying sample numbers shown in different tables of Scottish Household Survey results may not be the same. This may be because:

• some people were unable to, or did not want to, answer certain questions; or
• the tables relate to different populations ( e.g. all households, all adults and all people); or
• some questions are only asked in certain circumstances (eg travel to work).

In tables which analyse the results of questions to which a respondent could give two or more answers, the percentages may total more than 100%.

5.2 Definitions: bus and coach service statistics

"Local" bus service : one which is available to the general public, where passengers pay separate fares and travel a radial distance no greater than 15 miles / 24 kilometres from the point of boarding. (For the earliest years, these figures are for the former category of "stage" services. The definitions of the types of service changed on 6 January 1986, when the term "local service" replaced the former term "stage service".)

"Other services": include contract, private hire, express journeys, excursions and tours which are not registered as local services.

Passenger journeys (boardings) : the statistics are compiled on the basis that each boarding of a vehicle counts as one passenger journey. Therefore, each trip made by a passenger on one vehicle on one route counts as a separate journey. Return tickets therefore count as two passenger journeys. A person who uses three different buses in the course of a journey will be counted as three separate passenger journeys (boardings). The numbers of passenger journeys using season tickets or travel passes may be estimated by operators.

Vehicle kilometres : estimates include some categories of empty running of buses (eg between garage and terminus) but exclude driver instruction and vehicle testing.

Local bus fare indices : Information about the size of each fares change is supplied by a panel of large operators. Indices are obtained by averaging charges using weights based on receipts from passengers (excluding concessionary fare reimbursement from local authorities). In theory, therefore, the index measures the change in the average charge to the fare-paying passenger.

Commercial services : are those run without direct financial support from a local transport authority. They are still eligible for central Government subsidy in the form of the Bus Service Operators Grant (formerly known as the fuel duty rebate) and (where applicable) for concessionary fare reimbursement from local transport authorities.

Subsidised services : are those considered socially necessary and run under contract to local transport authorities with some direct subsidy. They include a few services subsidised without competitive tendering, under Section 91 of the Transport Act 1985 ('de minimis' arrangements).

Concessionary fare reimbursement : Local authorities and PTAs are able to provide concessionary fare schemes for groups such as elderly people and disabled people and (since 26 October 1986) children. Authorities reimburse operators for revenue lost as a result of their participation in the schemes, after taking into account income from the extra travel generated. The reimbursement by authorities should be seen as a subsidy to the passenger, not to the operator. These schemes should not be confused with the reductions offered to children, for example, by many operators on commercial grounds.

Staff employed :Platform staff comprise drivers, conductors and any other on-vehicle staff; maintenance staff include all employees engaged on cleaning, repair, service or maintenance of vehicles, while other staff include administrative staff. There may be some duplication of functions, particularly amongst the smaller operators.

5.3 Definitions: Scottish Household Survey results

Highest Income Householder: the household reference person for the first part of the interview. This must be a person in whose name the accommodation is owned or rented, or who is otherwise responsible for the accommodation. In the case of joint householders, the person with the highest income is taken as the household reference person.

Adult: for the purposes of the SHS, an adult is someone who was aged 16 or over at the time of the interview; a child is someone who was aged 15 or under.

Household types
A single pensioner household consists of just one adult of pensionable age (60+ for women, and 65+ for men) and no children
A single parent household contains an adult of any age and one or more children.
A single adult household consists of an adult of non-pensionable age and no children.
An older smaller household contains either (a) an adult of non-pensionable age and an adult of pensionable age and no children or (b) two adults of pensionable age and no children.
A large adult household has three or more adults and no children.
A small adult household contains two adults of non-pensionable age and no children.
A large family household consists of either (a) two adults and three or more children or (b) three or more adults and one or more children.
Small family households consist of two adults and one or two children.

Socio-economic classification: the social class categories used in the SHS in 2002 and earlier years have been superseded. With effect from 2003, the SHS uses the National Statistics Socio-economic Classification ( NS- SEC), which has been designed to group together, as far as possible, people with similar levels of occupational skills. The version of the classification used for this analysis has eight categories, although the final one is not used in the tables, as it refers only to those who have never worked or are long-term unemployed. The seven classes which appear in the tables are aggregations of thirteen groups ("L1" to "L13"), and are:

• Higher managerial and professional occupations - persons who employ others in enterprises of 25 or more persons, and who delegate some part of their managerial and entrepreneurial functions onto salaried staff (L1); positions in which there is a 'service relationship' with the employer, and involving general planning and supervision of operations on behalf of the employer (L2); and positions, whether occupied by employers, the self-employed, or employees, covering all types of higher professional work (L3);
• Lower managerial and professional occupations - positions, whether occupied by employers, the self-employed, or employees, covering lower professional and higher technical occupations (L4); positions in which there is an attenuated form of the 'service relationship' and where those employed in these positions generally plan and supervise operations on behalf of the employer under the direction of senior managers (L5); positions (other than managerial) having an attenuated form of 'service relationship' which cover intermediate occupations included in L7. These positions involve formal and immediate supervision of others engaged in such occupations (L6);
• Intermediate occupations - positions not involving general planning or supervisory powers, in clerical, sales, service and intermediate technical occupations. Positions in this group are 'mixed' in terms of employment regulations, i.e. are intermediate with respect to the service relationship and the labour contract (L7);
• Small employers and own account workers - persons (other than higher or lower professionals) who employ others (and thus assume some degree of control over them) and carry out all or most of the entrepreneurial and managerial functions of the enterprise, but employ fewer than 25 employees (L8); self-employed positions in which the persons involved are engaged in any (non-professional) trade, personal service, semi-routine, routine or other occupation, but have no employees other than family workers (L9);
• Lower supervisory and technical occupations - positions having a modified form of 'labour contract', which cover occupations included in groups L11, L12 and L13, and involve formal and immediate supervision of others engaged in such occupations (L10); positions in which employees are engaged in lower technical and related occupations and thereby have a modified form of the 'labour contract' (L11);
• Semi-routine occupations - positions in which employees are engaged in semi-routine occupations which have a slightly modified labour contract (L12);
• Routine occupations - positions where employees are engaged in routine occupations which have a basic labour contract (L13).

Because the SHS only collects occupational information for people in employment, and for people who are not in work but who have been in paid work in the five years prior to the survey, the socio-economic classification is not known in many cases ( e.g. people who have been retired for many years). For the purposes of classifying households, the socio-economic classification of the Highest Income Householder is used.

Annual net household income: this is the total annual net income ( i.e. after taxation and other deductions) from employment, benefits and other sources, which is brought into the household by the highest income householder and/or his/her spouse or partner. This includes any contribution to household finances made by other household members ( e.g. for "digs").

The Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation ( SIMD)
The Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation ( SIMD) has been designed by the Scottish Executive to rank the "data zones" used for the production of Scottish Neighbourhood Statistics in order of deprivation. There are 6,505 data zones, with an average of about 750 residents in each, formed by aggregating Census output areas. The SIMD is based on 31 indicators in the six individual "domains" of "Current Income", "Employment", "Housing", "Health", "Education", "Skills and Training" and "Geographic Access to Services and Telecommunications". More information can be found at the SIMD website ( http://www.scotland.gov.uk/stats/simd2004 / ).

Households in the SHS sample have been allocated the SIMD value of the data zone which contains the postcode of the residence. In the small number of cases where a postcode is split between more than one data zone, the SIMD value used is that of the data zone into which the largest number of dwellings in that postcode falls. The SIMD values have further been assigned to one of 5 quintiles, with quintile 1 containing the most deprived 20% of data zones in Scotland, and quintile 5 the least deprived 20%. Because the SHS sample is not spread uniformly across Scotland, the quintiles do not necessarily each contain exactly 20% of the households in the SHS sample.

SHS urban / rural classification: this is based on settlement sizes, and (for the less-populated areas) the estimated time to drive to a settlement with a population of 10,000 or more:

• Large urban areas - settlements with populations of 125,000 or more. These are around Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh and Glasgow - but are not the same as those Council areas.
• Other urban areas - other settlements of 10,000 or more population
• "Accessible" small towns - settlements of between 3,000 and 9,999 people, which are within 30 minutes drive of a settlement of 10,000 or more people
• "Remote" small towns - settlements of between 3,000 and 9,999 people, which are not within 30 minutes drive of a settlement of 10,000 or more people
• "Accessible" rural areas - settlements of less than 3,000 people, which are within 30 minutes drive of a settlement of 10,000 or more people
• "Remote" rural areas - settlements of less than 3,000 people, which are not within 30 minutes drive of a settlement of 10,000 or more people

Most Councils contain more than one type of area, so there may be apparent inconsistencies between, say, the figures for (a) rural areas and (b) "mainly rural" Councils.

Regional Transport Partnership areas: Under the powers in the Transport (Scotland) Act 2005, Scottish Ministers have created seven regional transport partnerships ( RTPs). The Act places a statutory duty on RTPs to prepare regional transport strategies. The RTPs and the local authority areas that they cover are shown in the table below (please note that the RTP names have not been given in full, for ease of reading - e.g. the full name of the "West" RTP is "the West of Scotland Regional Transport Partnership"). In the case of an RTP which covers the area of only one local authority (or of only a few local authorities), the figures may be subject to quite large sampling errors if the SHS does not have a large sample for that area.

The statistics for RTP areas which appear in this bulletin have been prepared on the above basis except in the case of the "Highlands & Islands" and "West" RTPs, where the definition used has been slightly different because (at present) households in the Helensburgh and Lomond areas of Argyll & Bute cannot be separately identified in the SHS database. The figures for "Highlands & Islands" therefore include the whole of the Argyll & Bute Council area (including the Helensburgh and Lomond areas), and the figures for "West" do not include any of Argyll & Bute. Because Helensburgh and Lomond together contain much less than half of the total population of Argyll & Bute, their being counted in the wrong RTP area for the purpose of preparing the figures reported in this bulletin is unlikely to affect greatly the results.

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