FOI reference: FOI-2025-3301
You said
I am requesting data for the number of pubs located in Lincoln across every individual year for the last 15 years.
We said
Thank you for your request.
The Inter Departmental Business Register (IDBR) includes all businesses registered for VAT and/or PAYE. A snapshot of the data on the IDBR is taken annually in March and published in the UK Business: Activity, size and location publication.
An easier way to look at the data for the last fifteen years is to view the data on NOMIS. The data are held here back to 2010. When you access the link to NOMIS choose the "Query data" option on the right-hand side and then choose "UK Business Counts" (which is towards the bottom of the list.) We would recommend that you choose the local units option, when looking at the number of pubs in an area, as this will give you the number of sites. If you choose the enterprise option, this will count a chain of pubs as just one enterprise and record it in the location of the head office. Using NOMIS you can break the data down by year, Standard Industrial Classification (SIC 56302 is the classification for public houses and bars) and by local authority district.
If you have any issues using NOMIS please contact our data service team by emailing idbrdas@ons.gov.uk and they will be happy to help you.