Additional guidance for surveys beginning later than April 2008
The standard reporting period is April to March during which period a target number of responses has been set based on the number of businesses that have been contacted during this 12-month period. Returns should be made no later than 30 June 2009 and containing the survey results for 12 months.
However, because the technical definitions were not published until February 2008 some local authorities may not be in a position to begin to run monthly surveys from April 2008. Local authorities can begin their surveys later in the year in the first year, although this should be no later than 3 months after the beginning of the reporting period, ie for those carrying out monthly surveys we expect local authorities to begin to send questionnaires to businesses in July at the latest.
Options open to local authorities that intend to run monthly surveys and begin their surveys later than April include:
- ‘catching up’ with the survey by sending out questionnaires to the same businesses who would have been sampled if the survey had started in April
- increasing the number of businesses surveyed each month. There are difficulties with this approach where the sample base of businesses is relatively low and where, for example, reducing the survey period from 12 to 9 months may mean surveying almost every business in the sample base. Local authorities should consider carefully the impact of this option because it may place an undue burden on business.
These options only apply in the first year to those local authorities running monthly surveys. They should not need to apply to local authorities who are running surveys at different frequencies, for example, quarterly.
Additional reporting
Where a local authority is unable to begin its survey from April 2008, and as a result finds it difficult to achieve the target number of responses, an additional set of reporting requirements has been put in place. The standard reporting year remains April to March and all local authorities should send a return by 30 June. The return should explain if the survey does not cover a full 12 month period and set out the period the return covers.
It is important that each local authority submits 12 months’ data each year. For that reason, where a local authority does not submit returns for 12 months in June 2009, it should send an additional return for the full 12 month period no later than 3 months after the end of its 12-month survey period. It should do this each year for the lifetime of the indicator.
