Export Statistics Scotland: methodology

Quality assurance

We quality assure both the GCS data and the ESS data separately.  

The first stage of quality assurance involves thoroughly checking the data that is collected from businesses in GCS. We pro-actively support businesses during data collection by providing guidance on how to complete the survey and working with businesses individually to support them in providing their response. We answer queries from businesses on what is expected in the survey. This ensures that the data collected is a high standard.  

We also look in detail at the data that has been collected, which includes comparing the responses in the current GCS with past responses for individual businesses. If we identify potential errors, we contact the business and work with them to ensure all responses are as accurate as possible. We will also use other data sources to corroborate this data and ensure that the data is accurate. 

The next stage of quality assurance involves checking the ESS data. Our quality assurance process includes checking for errors and outliers in turnover and export values as well as export proportions. These can all impact the resulting estimates of export values. Where errors and outliers are found, we use our experience and knowledge of Scotland’s businesses and trade data sources to manually amend values where necessary. This means that in the microdata some values for certain businesses might not match the original data source.