UK innovation survey 2023 – results for Scotland

Introduction

This report presents the Scottish findings from the UK Innovation Survey (UKIS) 2023, covering the three-year period from 2020 to 2022. The UKIS is the main data source for business innovation in the UK. The survey is conducted every 2 years. It focuses on business’ adoption of innovation through new and improved products and services, investments in different types of innovation, and changes in business structures, management, design and marketing innovations. It also asks businesses about the drivers which motivate, and barriers to, innovation.

The UKIS 2023 asked businesses with 10 or more employees from Standard Industrial Classification 2007 (SIC 2007) sectors B to N for information on their innovation activities over the three-year period from 2020 to 2022. If information was not available for calendar years, businesses were asked that their return covered the nearest financial years.

The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic began in the first quarter of 2020 and is likely to have had an impact on business innovation in the three year period businesses were reporting on, as well as the latter part of the period covered by the previous UKIS (UKIS 2021, reporting period 2018-20). High inflation and energy prices may also have had an impact in the latest survey.

Geographic locations of businesses are based on businesses’ head office location. Business size, given by number of employees, is the total number of employees anywhere in the UK, irrespective of head office location. For example, a business in Scotland with 250 employees may have some based at their head office in Scotland and others based elsewhere in the UK.

The Definitions section explains the key terms used to describe innovation in this publication.

An Excel workbook containing tables to accompany this publication (UK innovation survey 2023 – results for Scotland – tables.xlsx) is available on the supporting documents web page.

An Official Statistics Publication for Scotland

These statistics are official statistics. Official statistics are statistics that are produced by crown bodies, those acting on behalf of crown bodies, or those specified in statutory orders, as defined in the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007.

Scottish Government statistics are regulated by the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR). OSR sets the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics that all producers of official statistics should adhere to.

More information about Scottish Government statistics is available on the Scottish Government website.