Breakdown of business survey production costs

FOI reference: FOI-2025-3327

You asked

Could you please provide, for each survey listed (or at least for the largest/highest-cost ones), the following:

Sample size / volume

• Number of organisations issued to (invitations sent)
• Number of responses received (usable responses)
• Response rate (and, if available, response rate split by mode)

Mode breakdown

• Whether the survey was paper-only, digital-only, or mixed-mode, and (for mixed-mode) the proportion of responses by each mode

Cost breakdown (fixed vs variable)

• A split of "production costs" into categories such as: printing, outbound postage, return postage, paper handling/scanning, manual data entry/coding, call-centre/support, digital platform/licensing/hosting, and any one-off build costs amortised into 2025

Time and staffing effort (if available)

• Estimated staff time or FTE effort attributable to processing/collection by mode (especially where paper requires extra handling)

With those inputs, we can calculate cost per issued, cost per response, and cost per usable response for paper vs digital, and then translate the difference into a clear "per taxpayer" framing.

We said

Thank you for your request.

Please see the associated download showing the five highest-cost surveys from 2025. 

In Table 1 we have provided: 

• Digital Surveys: Monthly Business Survey and the Annual Business Survey. 

• Paper-based survey: UK Manufacturer's by Sales (Prodcom) Survey 

• Mixed-mode surveys: Business Register and Employment Survey and the Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings. 

Response rates for Business Register and Employment Survey are current response rates for survey period 202512. This survey does not close until later in 2026. 

In table 2, we have provided: 

• Direct Resource (Business Data Operations Division). 

• Core Delivery - survey teams which includes editing, validation and 'call-centre' activity. 

• Print and despatch 

• Scanning and keying - includes manual data entry. 

• Enforcement and respondent feedback team 

• Direct General Administrative Expenses: 

• Stationery - paper and envelopes 

• Outgoing postage 

• Incoming postage 

• Print impressions 

• Other - (contracts related to printing, scanning, collection etc.) 

• Indirect General Administrative Expenses: 

Travel and subsistence, homeworking equipment, general spend etc. 

• Indirect Costs: 

Resource not directly working on surveys (training, transformation and change, Business Support, etc.)

Regarding Qs 3 and 4, we do not hold a split of production costs or staff time/FTE effort for paper vs digital surveys. Our staff and production teams service both paper and digital surveys. Also, it is not possible to allocate digital costs to each survey. It therefore is not possible for us to disaggregate costs accurately. As outlined in our Survey Improvement and Enhancement Plan, we are working to refine and extend our digital data collection services. Feedback from the businesses we work with is important to us. You can contact us at bdd.respondent.feedback.team@ons.gov.uk.