TGK 2/01 Technical Group Minutes 27.01.05
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SCOTTISH HOUSEHOLD SURVEY
TECHNICAL GROUP MEETING
27th January 2005
MINUTES OF MEETING
Present:
Neil Jackson (DD ASD, HoD - Chair)
Emma McCallum (DD: ASD Social Research, SHS Project Manager)
Lisa Taylor (DD: ASD Social Research, SHS Research Officer)
Frank Dixon (DD: ASD Transport Statistics)
Duncan Gray (DD ASD Senior Statistician)
Stephen Hinchliffe (DD: ASD Transport Statistics, SHS Data Administrator)
John Tibbitt (DD: ASD Senior Principal Researcher)
Robert Williams (ASG, Office of Chief Statistician)
Steven Hope (MORI Scotland)
Pat MacLeod (TNS)
Chris Martin (TNS)
Apologies:
Chris Enyon (TNS), Bianca Heggie (OPS :ASD, OCEA)
1. Welcome and introductions
Neil Jackson welcomed everyone to the meeting and suggested introductions around the table
to introduce two new faces at the meeting. These included Lisa Taylor, the new Research
Officer supporting the project management of the SHS and Pat MacLeod, Director- TNS
Social, who will be replacing Chris Enyon at subsequent meetings.
2. Minutes and action points from previous meeting
The following amendments were suggested and agreed by the Technical Group:
 Robert Williams suggested ‘final costs to go on website’ on first bullet point page 3 to
be changed to ‘total costs to go website’.
 ‘asap’ was to be dropped from 3rd bullet point on page 6 and action point list.
 Robert Williams suggested it should be made clear that it was the Future role of OCS
‘in the SHS’ under discussion and not the Future role of OCS
 It was requested that the minutes should record that the final decision of the last TG
meeting was to drop the ILO definition.
The group went through the status of the action points from the previous meeting. The
following action points were noted as being pressing:
 Quote for SHS Lite 2003/2004. Steven agreed that he would produce one by the end
of the following week.
 Summary of 2005 questionnaire changes. Emma McCallum reported that this had
been started. The Group agreed that this was important. Frank Dixon suggested that
there should also be an updated version of the full Topic list .
 Steven Hope agreed he would create the new derived variables. He stated that no
additional fee would be required for this.
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Action Points
 SHS team to up-date Minutes from previous meeting
 Steven Hope to produce a quote for SHS Lite 2003/2004 by Friday 4th
February 2005.
 SHS team to produce a summary paper of questionnaire revision and
distribute to all people involved in the process and put it on the SHS Web
site, along with an updated version of the full Topic list.
 Duncan Gray to receive full information on what ILO definition is from the
Office of the Chief Statistician
 Technical group to be offered a final chance to comment on all minutes
before they go on the SHS website
 Steven Hope to create the new derived variables
3. Fieldwork Progress
Steven Hope gave a verbal up-date on fieldwork progress outlined in the circulated paper. It
was reported that the work on the 2004 sample would close by the end of next week which
would hopefully produce an estimated 15,330 interviews representing 97% of the 2004 target.
The response rate for 2003 sample was just over 70% and it was estimated the final combined
response rate for 2003/2004 will be 69%. It was also reported that the largest shortfalls were
again in Glasgow and Edinburgh.
The Technical Group acknowledged the hard work which had been put in by the contractors
to achieve the highest ever response rate for a 2 year sweep of data collection.
Steven Hope also reported on the start of the 2005 fieldwork. Due to the delay in the
despatch of materials and unwieldy show cards, little interviewing was done over the
Christmas period. Initial feedback from interviewer on the revised questionnaire is that it is
taking too long. This has since stabilised at 51 minutes on average. Steven noted that he
will look into this again in approximately 2 weeks time but noted that there might be a
possibility of cutting the questionnaire in the future if it continues to run over the 45 minute
average.
There was some discussion over what parts of the questionnaire were too long. It was noted
that some of the volunteering questions had the biggest question mark. Steven noted it was
possible to flag questions in the script with the possibility of only asking half the sample.
John Tibbitt noted that they would not want to lose volunteering question and that asking
only half the sample would be the preferable first step option in cutting the questionnaire
time.
Steven reported that he would produce benchmarked field work updates for comparative
yearly analysis but noted that he only has figures going back to March 2004. He would
provide the most relevant figures he has from January to March.
Action points
 Steven Hope to report back on what parts of the questionnaire are taking the longest
time.
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 Steven Hope to produce a benchmark comparison on previous year or nearest
relevant figure in weekly progress reports.
 SHS team to provide up-date to TG from data/fieldwork working group
4. SHS User seminar
Emma McCallum updated the group on the revised SHS Lite Launch agenda and noted it was
now changed to a SHS User Event. 72 people have registered their interest in attending the
event. The group noted the cohesive nature and obvious worth in the day for raising the
profile of the SHS.
The following suggestions were made about the agenda:



The SHS Review presentation to be extended to 15 minutes. This would flag up
interest in the review process and alert people to the Review pro-forma (to be
included in the hand out pack). The Group agreed that it was an excellent opportunity
to raise awareness of the review and to get people to think about any initial concerns,
issues and methodological interests that they have with the SHS.
To trim down the afternoon presentations and to take out "report back" sessions.
To include a plenary panel board at the end, chaired by Neil Jackson and extend this
invitation to guest speakers. Invite questions from the audience on the future of the
SHS and any initial thoughts on the SHS Review.
Action points


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SHS Team to amend SHS User Event agenda accordingly and distribute to
Technical Group before releasing on the SHS website.
SHS Team to invite guest speakers to sit on the panel board.
SHS Team to produce a pro-forma on the SHS Review for inclusion in the event
hand out pack.
5. Website
Emma McCallum updated the group on initial meetings she had with Nesstar on the
possibilities of having more data tables available of the SHS website. Nesstar would also
allows users to conduct their own data analysis as well as include useful search facilities and
bookmark facilities. The cost of this could be met from within the budget which had been
allocated for the dissemination of SHS results. Feedback after the initial meeting has
highlighted concerns with disability discrimination issues, usability of the software for an
inexperienced user and single source procurement issues. It was noted that in other reviews
there has been user pressure to make data more accessible.
The group agreed that this was a good idea and there was consensus to take this forward. The
following points were noted in the discussion:
 Robert Williams stated that OCS are developing the Statistics website. He suggested
the possibility of cross office working and taking this forward. Julie Bright from OCS
is heading the initiative to make statistics more accessible.
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John Tibbitt noted that procurement guidelines mean that other companies would
have to be invited to tender.
Emma also highlighted that the tables on the SHS website were for 1999/2000 sweep. Steven
Hope commented that the 2001/2002 tables were not in the contract but the 2003/2004
dataset tables were.
Action Points
 Emma McCallum to explore the opportunity of cross office working in development
of the website and contact Julie Bright
 Emma McCallum to identify other software companies for the tender process and to
take forward the procurement process.
 Emma McCallum to further investigate the DDA issues surrounding the NESSTAR
software and also to investigate whether the provision of easy filtering options e.g.
Local authority or tenure may be a partial solution to overcome barriers for novice
user
 Contractors to produce a quote for inclusion of the 2001/2002 tables on the SHS
website.
 Robert Williams suggested that some Scottish Household Survey indicators could
be placed on the Scottish Neighbourhood Statistics website. SHS team to pursue.
 SHS team to pursue putting 2001/2002 and 2003/2004 tables on the SHS website
6. Management Arrangement
John Tibbitt highlighted that the paper was for information. He advised that the revised OCS
role was a gradual process and that they were available for an advisory and quality assurance
role for the statistical publications. Emma McCallum highlighted that there was a long term
role for the SHS Team doing the "social justice" data analysis but that this would depend on
workload and funding for an assistant statistician. John Tibbitt thought the ASD would be
better balanced with statistical input on "social justice" matters from within.
Stephen Hinchliffe noted that there was a gap in social justice statistical analysis. Emma
McCallum highlighted that Steven Hope had taken on board much of the statistical analysis
that OCS had done previously. Steven agreed to continue to provide analysis to ad hoc
requests.
The group noted the progress of OCS’s changing role.
7. Analytical Topic Reports
Modal shift
Frank Dixon updated the TG on the status of the Modal shift analytical topic report.
contractor has been appointed.
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Accessibility and Transport
Stephen Hinchliffe advised that the contractors were 3 weeks behind scheduled and that the
final report would be ready by the end of April and not the end of March as previously stated.
Anti-Social Behaviour (ASB)
John Tibbitt informed the group that the research specification was still being finalised. This
delay was mainly due to the transfer of ASB to Justice department.
8. SHS Weighting
Steven Hope updated the group on the options for developing SHS weighting:
There was identification of bias in design and non-response rates. However this was not
cause for concern as comparative analysis with external reference data highlights no concerns
over corrective weighting as the differences are too small. Steven Hope highlighted that any
Census-based weights for adjusting for apparent bias and non-response in the SHS would
have values between 0.95 and 1.05.
Robert Williams gave an update on the 2001 Census-linked Study of Survey Non-response
on the SHS. The report would not be published by the Office for National Statistics in its
entirety. Office for National Statistics were now looking for Scottish Executive ‘sign off’.
John Tibbitt asked for table on census outcomes with SHS outcome (this was paid for by
SHS) before the 2001 Census-linked Study of Survey Non-response was signed off. There
was also discussion about a number of tables to be published in comparison work which the
TG may need to look at.
Action Points
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Emma McCallum to ask Stephanie Freeth for table comparing census outcomes
with SHS outcome and for a final copy of the report and to place this on the
website
Robert Williams to see if there are any further comments on census outcomes with
SHS outcome from OCS, and others including Ganka, researcher at GRO
Steven Hope will circulate a paper on weighting with his analysis and
recommendations by mid-March
Property type of each address should be collected long-term and this should be built
into any future contract
Frank Dixon to e-mail spreadsheets on SHS/Census comparisons of "local
authority" figures for car availability and travel to work carried out by his team to
Steven Hope.
9. Follow-up survey
Emma McCallum gave an update to the group on Fran Wasoff’s follow up study.
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The group discussed the implications of the use of SHS data in the Wasoff research.
The following was highlighted:

There should be no passing on of SHS data in this instance. It will not help the
research as they will have to verify and up-date the information anyway and so they
would be wise to collect it again, since household circumstances may have changed.
They won’t know in advance who will actually opt-in to the research. Therefore the
details of the opt-ins would not be able to be handed over in advance of the research
being carried out.
There was a general discussion on the need for a protocol on how requests for follow-up
studies should be handled.
Key points included:
 Data should only be released with very prescriptive conditions attached to it i.e. that it
is only for the agreed purpose and should be destroyed after it has been used. The
SHS team would need to ensure a reassurance was received that the data has indeed
been destroyed after the research has been completed.
 There was discussion as to whether consent to hand data over to researchers was
needed – i.e. A second opt-in?
 Whether the handing out of contact details would ever affect the overall perception of
the SHS and of what the government does with the SHS data was also discussed.
The group agreed that the follow-up survey protocol needed to be tightened up and
reviewed. Absolute restrictions need to be clearly laid out. There was consensus that the
SHS Team should let follow-up surveys after guidance has been agreed. The technical
group will be available for advice but would not need to be consulted about every followup survey.
Lisa Taylor noted that Tom Lamplugh’s application for a travel and disability follow-up
survey and David Ogilvie’s papers were to come to a future meeting.
Action Points

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
Emma McCallum to inform Fran Wasoff of the group’s decision
Robert Williams to provide a stop gap solution in the use of the National Statistics
Protocols. Robert Williams will e-mail Duncan Gray with a contact name.
Duncan Gray to review follow-up survey protocol.
SHS team to put note on website about the protocol for future follow-up surveys.
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10. Any Other Business
11. Date of next meeting
The group agreed that all future meeting are to start at 9.30 am.
Action Point
 SHS team to update meetings accordingly
12. SHS Review Up-date
(contractors left at this time)
Duncan Gray updated the group on the revised Project Initiation Document (PID). Frank
Dixon noted that changes needed to be made to the timetable.
Emma McCallum reported that she will update the research spec with the changes in the PID
with the aim of getting the invitation to tender letters out by the end of the following week.
John Tibbitt highlighted that, after the contractors report in Autumn, the report should be
used as the vehicle for the SHS business plan and research spec for new SHS contract. It
should also be used to inform Ministers.
Neil Jackson to arrange a series of meetings with each of the policy areas very soon so that
they can provide input to the SHS review. The purpose of these meetings to engage with
people from different divisions. A seminar on "SHS for Transport Policy" would also be
organised.
Action points
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Emma McCallum to update PID with new timetable, including a date for the
business plan and the Ministerial Minute in November.
Emma McCallum to amend research specification with changes in PID and invite
to tender by Friday 4th February
SHS Team to set up the first Review Team meeting and let them know of their
responsibilities
SHS team to set up the second Review Board meeting
Emma McCallum to summarise the minutes from the first review board making
sure the minutes are consistent with the main decisions and changes in the PID. A
draft of these should be circulated to Neil, John and Duncan.
Neil Jackson to arrange policy meetings and "SHS for Transport Policy" seminar.
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