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1. Survey overview
Background to the SHS
The Scottish Household Survey ( SHS) is a major cross-sectional survey that was first 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.
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, communities and local government 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.
Since 1999, the SHS has been carried out by a team from Ipsos MORI and TNS Social (formerly NFO Social Research). The same team was reappointed when the survey was subject to tender in 2002.
Each year, detailed Technical Reports have been published alongside the Annual Report of the survey results. These cover the survey methodology, fieldwork outcomes and the questionnaire used. 1 This document contains an edited version of the questionnaire for 2006, which is currently in the field and the data from which will be published in the 2006 Annual Report in 2007.
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