Consultation on the design of the Scottish Household Survey (SHS) for 2017 and beyond

Introduction

As part of Scotland's Spending Plans and Budget for 2016/17, the Scottish Government requires to make savings on the Scottish Household Survey (SHS) 2017. Savings of the level sought cannot be achieved without significant changes to the design of the SHS.

The Scottish Government is seeking users and stakeholders' views on two alternative options:

Option A
Biennial topics, i.e. halving the number of topics covered by the survey every year and collecting data on each topic every second year, with a small reduction in sample size (from 10,700 to 10,100).

Option B
Reduction of the overall survey sample size by around a third, from 10,700 to 7,450, with a small reduction in topics covered by the survey.

Both options realise the same level of cost savings. Further background on the SHS, the main impacts of the options, and alternative options considered are given below.