Gap 5: Survey compliance and quality improvement plan
2009–2012

Introduction

1. Survey control procedures apply to all statistical surveys of businesses or local authorities conducted by, or on behalf of, Government departments or agencies where there are potential costs incurred by those approached to participate.  The procedures recognise the benefits of surveys in providing the evidence base needed for sound decision-making by Government and others.  They seek to limit the costs of compliance with the surveys and to improve the quality of their outputs.

2. Instructions issued by the Prime Minister’s office in 1999 aim to ensure that adequate control is maintained at a broad strategic level.  Each department and agency which undertakes statistical surveys is required to have procedures in place to limit the costs imposed by its surveys and to improve their statistical quality; and to prepare, and obtain Ministerial approval for an annual compliance and quality improvement plan on a rolling three year basis. This compliance and quality improvement plan sets out HSE’s proposed arrangements for the period 1 April 2009 to 31 March 2012.   

Outputs of HSE surveys and their uses

3. Surveys of businesses or local authorities are an important part of HSE’s research programmes.  They are always voluntary rather than statutory, and nearly always ad hoc rather than regular.  They provide knowledge required for three main purposes:

• to support the development of policy ;
• to permit evaluation of HSE’s interventions; and
• to provide indicators of health and safety outcomes and related factors.

Survey activity and compliance costs for 2008/09

4. Twenty-four surveys were approved during 2008/09, including two from the Pesticides Safety Division which transferred into HSE from DEFRA during the year.  The estimated total compliance cost to businesses and local authorities – calculated by multiplying the number of individual respondents by the time each of them will take to respond, costed at a hourly rate depending on their management level – was £154,000. This is a fall of £261,000 from the 2007/08 figure and takes the compliance cost estimate to an historical low. 

5. This drop in compliance cost was anticipated in the previous annual report and is primarily due to the temporary suspension of regular risk control and working condition surveys whilst we develop and pilot proposals for a new, more flexible and  shorter survey.

6. The chart below shows the compliance cost burden each year since 1999/2000.  Figures have been consistently well below the agreed ministerial ceiling of £600,000.  Moreover, HSE’s compliance represents a very minor part of the total annual compliance costs of government surveys, which was £112 million in 2006/07. A summary of the HSE surveys approved during the latest year is attached in the appendix.  No large surveys were undertaken this year and the majority were very small.

Proposed survey activity and compliance costs during 2009/10

7. Most of HSE’s surveys are ad hoc, one-off projects, unlike the regular surveys run by ONS and some other Government Departments.  The Prime Minister’s instructions recognise that “some Departments may have difficulties in planning for ad hoc surveys, particularly where there are uncertainties over policy requirements and dynamic operational needs” and state that “where firm information is not available, [the compliance plan] may be limited to known regular surveys and any agreed ceiling”.  The following paragraphs cover these two aspects.

8. Three waves of risk control and working condition surveys (known as the Fit3 surveys) ran in 2005, 2006 and 2007.  These surveys were designed to provide information to improve HSE’s programme management and design and for PSA progress measurement.  A decision was taken to discontinue with these surveys in their previous form in 2008/09, partly in recognition of the data we have now accumulated from the surveys that have been undertaken, and partly because HSE’s strategy and direction are changing making the old surveys far less relevant.

9. Proposals are being developed, in discussion with major stakeholders, for a new annual survey which will begin in 2009/10.   The new survey will be shorter and more flexible than the previous surveys, enabling us to adapt to changing policy needs whilst at the same time providing a set of risk control indicators that are consistent over time and enable robust tracking of “interim” health & safety measures.  Our survey programme for 2008/09 included a feasibility study for the new survey.  The compliance cost associated with this repackaged survey is estimated to be around £90,000, lower than the £140,000 incurred by the 2006/07 and 2007/08 Fit3 surveys.

10. No other large scale survey work is planned for 2009/10 and it is anticipated that survey activity in other areas such as programme evaluation and communications research will remain at a similar level to recent years.  Overall therefore, we expect compliance costs in 2009/10 to be higher than the 2008/09 total, because of the resumption of a large scale survey, but still well within HSE’s agreed ‘ceiling’ of £600,000.

Proposed survey activity and compliance costs during 2010/11 – 2011/12

11. Plans for 2010/11 and 2011/12 are tentative.  The general level of survey activity is expected to remain fairly constant and we do not anticipate any difficulties in remaining within the agreed compliance ceiling.  The only large survey which we are currently aware of is the replacement risk control survey discussed above.

Initiatives to improve quality and/or reduce compliance costs

12. All HSE staff proposing to conduct surveys are required to show that good practice will be followed in designing, conducting and disseminating the results of the surveys.  All proposals with an expected compliance cost of £10,000 or more need to be approved both by a senior official within the sponsor division and by the head of HSE’s Analytical Services Division.  A database has been established to ensure that there is no unnecessary duplication of survey activity within HSE and to share best practice.

Contact

Kate Sweeney
Chief Statistician
HSE Statistics Branch

0151 951 3221

Appendix

Summary of HSE business surveys in 2008/09

Survey Title	Estimated Compliance Cost (£)
Evaluation of guidance for directors and board members	24900
HSE Stakeholder survey	17900
Offshore workers survey	16100
Surface Engineering Industry – Occupational Hygiene Evidence Base	13500
Evaluation of Moving Goods Safely 3	12300
Review of Corporate Health and Safety Performance Index (CHaSPI)	9800
Evaluation of the use of Electronic Profiling beds	8100
COSHH and current practice – improving the usefulness of guidance	7400
Mapping risks to respiratory health in the UK bakery industry	6000
Feasibility study for new HSE employer survey	5300
Pesticides Practice Survey	4700
RPE use study	4600
Quality of exposure control to chemical carcinogens and asthmagens	4100
Evaluation of Healthy Workplaces Milton Keynes pilot	3500
Evaluation of illegal poisoning campaign	3000
Peer review of construction fatalities	2900
Qualitative research amongst small construction site operators	2700
Assessing the effectiveness of the workplace transport route map	2500
Organisational behaviour research	1500
Exploring attitudes and influencers in target audiences	1100
Sensible risk management in school sector	800
Stops slips in kitchens evaluation	700
Drinking water signage	700
Survey of engineering academics	400