Numbers of enterprises and local units produced from a snapshot of the Inter-Departmental Business Register (IDBR) taken on 8 March 2024.

Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.

The Business Structure Database (BSD) contains a small number of variables for almost all business organisations in the UK. The BSD is derived primarily from the Inter-Departmental Business Register (IDBR), which is a live register of data collected by HM Revenue and Customs via VAT and Pay As You Earn (PAYE) records. The IDBR data are complimented with data from ONS business surveys. If a business is liable for VAT (turnover exceeds the VAT threshold) and/or has at least one member of staff registered for the PAYE tax collection system, then the business will appear on the IDBR (and hence in the BSD). In 2004 it was estimated that the businesses listed on the IDBR accounted for almost 99 per cent of economic activity in the UK. Only very small businesses, such as the self-employed were not found on the IDBR.

The IDBR is frequently updated, and contains confidential information that cannot be accessed by non-civil servants without special permission. However, the ONS Virtual Micro-data Laboratory (VML) created and developed the BSD, which is a 'snapshot' in time of the IDBR, in order to provide a version of the IDBR for research use, taking full account of changes in ownership and restructuring of businesses. The 'snapshot' is taken around April, and the captured point-in-time data are supplied to the VML by the following September. The reporting period is generally the financial year. For example, the 2000 BSD file is produced in September 2000, using data captured from the IDBR in April 2000. The data will reflect the financial year of April 1999 to March 2000. However, the ONS may, during this time, update the IDBR with data on companies from its own business surveys, such as the Annual Business Survey (SN 7451).

The data are divided into 'enterprises' and 'local units'. An enterprise is the overall business organisation. A local unit is a 'plant', such as a factory, shop, branch, etc. In some cases, an enterprise will only have one local unit, and in other cases (such as a bank or supermarket), an enterprise will own many local units.

For each company, data are available on employment, turnover, foreign ownership, and industrial activity based on Standard Industrial Classification (SIC)92, SIC 2003 or SIC 2007. Year of 'birth' (company start-up date) and 'death' (termination date) are also included, as well as postcodes for both enterprises and their local units. Previously only pseudo-anonymised postcodes were available but now all postcodes are real.

The ONS is continually developing the BSD, and so researchers are strongly recommended to read all documentation pertaining to this dataset before using the data.

Linking to Other Business Studies
These data contain IDBR reference numbers. These are anonymous but unique reference numbers assigned to business organisations. Their inclusion allows researchers to combine different business survey sources together. Researchers may consider applying for other business data to assist their research.

Latest Edition Information
For the sixteenth edition (March 2024), data files and a variable catalogue document for 2023 have been added.

Main Topics:

The following variables are available for enterprises and local units:

• employment (and employees)
• turnover
• Standard Industrial Classification (1992, 2003 and 2007 classifications are available)
• legal status (e.g. sole proprietor, partnership, public corporation, non-profit organisation etc)
• foreign ownership
• birth (company start date)
• death (termination date of trading)
• various geographical variables
  

'Employment' includes business owners, whereas 'employees' measures the number of staff, excluding owners.

Observations for enterprises also include a variable for ownership if the enterprise is part of a large group of companies.

Local units have an additional ‘death code’ variable, which serves as an indicator as to why the plant closed (e.g. as a result of a merger). It should also be noted that there is no turnover information for individual plants. This is because the ONS does not collect financial information at the plant level, which is notoriously difficult, especially for manufacturing plants where often no financial transactions are processed.

The birth and death variables are particularly useful for research, although it should be noted that for businesses that began trading before 1973, their birth date will be set to 1973. This is the year that VAT was introduced in the UK, and hence the first point in time for VAT registration for these companies. Companies that began trading since 1973 have their ‘real’ date of birth listed.

Annual estimates of foreign-owned businesses by industry group, section, employment and turnover group, and country breakdown.

The Longitudinal Small Business Survey (LSBS) is a large-scale telephone survey of small business owners and managers commissioned by the Department for Business and Trade (DBT). This survey is the latest in a series of annual and biennial Small Business Surveys (SBS) dating back to 2003.

In 2015, the survey methodology changed to include a longitudinal tracking element. A large sample size was recruited in Year One (2015) to establish a panel of businesses to be re-surveyed in subsequent years. This will allow a detailed analysis of how combinations of factors affect business performance.

The LSBS is intended to:

• Improve the understanding of what drives and constrains business performance and growth by addressing evidence gaps relating to the lags between many business activities and associated performance outcomes;
• Provide improved data on current business performance and the factors that affect this. The larger survey size will provide more reliable findings for key sub-groups of the business population and in relation to activities such as seeking finance, which are only relevant to part of the sample.

The data available covers all respondents over the course of the six years so far. Further information and research reports are available on the GOV.UK "https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/small-business-survey-reports"> Small Business Survey Reports webpage.

Controlled (Secure) Access Version
A Controlled (Secure) Access version of the LSBS is available from the UK Data Archive, subject to stringent secure access conditions. Extra variables include postcode district, 2-, 3-, and 4-digit SIC codes; and Inter-Departmental Business Register (IDBR) reference numbers for linking to other business surveys. Small Business Survey data files for 2010 and 2012 containing 4-digit SIC codes and IDBR reference numbers are available under SN 6856. Users are strongly advised to check whether the safeguarded version is sufficient for their needs before considering an application for the Controlled (Secure) Access version.

Latest edition information
For the ninth edition (December 2024), the data and documentation have been updated to include Year 9 of the survey, completed during 2023-2024.

Annual data on births, deaths and survival of businesses in the UK, by geographical area and Standard Industrial Classification 2007: SIC 2007 groups.

United Kingdom E Commerce: Business: Over Website: 1000+ Employees data was reported at 45.700 % in 2016. This records an increase from the previous number of 43.700 % for 2015. United Kingdom E Commerce: Business: Over Website: 1000+ Employees data is updated yearly, averaging 44.200 % from Dec 2008 (Median) to 2016, with 9 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 46.500 % in 2012 and a record low of 33.000 % in 2008. United Kingdom E Commerce: Business: Over Website: 1000+ Employees data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by Office for National Statistics. The data is categorized under Global Database’s UK – Table UK.S031: E Commerce: Proportion of Businesses Making E Commerce Sales.

This statistic displays the average amount of data stored by businesses in the previous 12 months in the United Kingdom (UK) in 2015, by industry. Retail banking firms stored the largest amount of ** terabytes. The investment banking sector was ranked second with an average of ** terabytes.

The Cambridge Centre for Business Research Survey of Knowledge Exchange Activity with Universities by United Kingdom Companies, 2017-2021 contains the results of an online survey of directors of UK companies in 2020-2021.

The survey was designed to assess the extent and nature of the knowledge exchange interactions of their companies with the university sector. It covers the three-year period to March 2020 prior to the Covid-19 pandemic and questions relating to the subsequent impact of the pandemic on knowledge exchange patterns. The researchers inquired about 33 modes of interaction grouped into four broad categories. These were commercialisation (3 modes), people-based (10 modes), problem-solving (12 modes) and community-based (4 modes).

The survey covers a sample of 3,823 companies in all sectors, regions and countries of the UK and employment sizes ranging from micro-firms less than 10 employees, to the largest public listed corporations. The response rate was 4.4 per cent and a detailed response bias analyses by survey wave and prompt wave showed largely insignificant sample response bias compared to the sampling frame drawn from the FAME database of all UK companies.

The dataset provides a unique source of data on a critical period of challenge for knowledge exchange in the UK. David Sweeney, the then Executive Director of Research England which sponsored the survey commented on an initial report of results in 2022 that "This report which has an exclusive focus on company interactions with universities, is an important addition to our understanding of the collaboration process" (The Changing State of Business-University Interactions in the UK. Centre for Business Research and NCUB. 2022 p2).

The survey dataset contains many variables comparable with a similar previous postal survey of an earlier period by two members of the current research team. The data from this is available from the Data Archive under SN 6464 - Cambridge Centre for Business Research Survey of Knowledge Exchange Activity by United Kingdom Businesses, 2005-2009.

The Small Business Survey (SBS) is a large scale telephone survey commissioned by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) as a follow up to the Annual Survey of Small Businesses 2007/8. The main aims of the first SBS survey in 2010 were to:

• monitor key enterprise indicators (e.g. employment, turnover, finance, business growth) and how these have changed in comparison to previous surveys. In particular the survey measures characteristics of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SME) such as the proportions which are women and minority-ethnic led, and the proportions applying for and obtaining external finance


• gauge SME intentions, needs, concerns and the obstacles to fulfilling their potential
• provide evidence for possible Government interventions to assist SMEs
• create a database which can be used for follow-up studies among the general SME population, or sub-groups within it

The main aims of the next survey in 2012 were to:

• monitor key enterprise indicators and how these have changed in comparison to previous surveys, the 2010 SBS in particular
• create a database that can be used for follow-up studies among the general SME population, and sub-groups within it.

From 2015, the survey methodology has changed to include a longitudinal tracking element. The Longitudinal Small Business Survey: Secure Access is available under SN 8261.

Linking to other business studies
These data contain Inter-Departmental Business Register reference numbers. These are anonymous but unique reference numbers assigned to business organisations. Their inclusion allows researchers to combine different business survey sources together. Researchers may consider applying for other business data to assist their research.

The second edition (August 2014) includes data from 2012.

A survey conducted in April and May 2023 revealed that around a quarter of United States and United Kingdom organizations were highly concerned about data privacy law enforcement involving their company. A further 35 percent were worried about data breaches and other cybersecurity incidents. Dealing with high costs of privacy law compliance was a concern for approximately 20 percent of the respondents.

The Business Register and Employment Survey (BRES) is the official source of employee and employment estimates by detailed geography and industry. It is also used to update the Inter-Departmental Business Register (IDBR), the main sampling frame for business surveys conducted by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), with information on the structure of businesses in the UK.

The survey collects employment information from businesses across the whole of the UK economy for each site that they operate. This allows the ONS to produce employee and employment estimates by detailed geography and industry split by full-time/part-time workers and whether the business is public/private.

The ONS produces a number of different measures of employment including Workforce Jobs and the Annual Population Survey/Labour Force Survey. However, BRES is the recommended source of information on employment by detailed geography and industry.

The BRES has two purposes: collecting data to update local unit information and business structures on the IDBR, and producing published annual employment statistics.

The BRES sample does not include Northern Ireland. Northern Ireland data are received direct from the Northern Ireland Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment (DETINI) which are used to create UK estimates. The UK Data Archive holds data only for Great Britain.

The BRES replaced the Annual Business Inquiry, Part 1 (ABI/1) in 2009. ABI/1 data for 2009 and earlier are held as part of the Annual Respondents Database under UK Data Archive SN 6644.

Change in sampling from 2015-2016
In 2015, ONS made a strategic decision to include business units with a single PAYE code for which VAT data are available. Prior to 2015, such units were excluded from the sampling frame and therefore not estimated for in ONS outputs. So from January 2016, the coverage of BRES was extended to include a population of solely PAYE based businesses. This improvement in coverage is estimated to have increased the business survey population by around 100,000 businesses, with a total of around 300,000 employment and 200,000 employees between December 2015 and January 2016. The increase in business population has led to an increase in the estimate of employment and employees for the 2015 dataset. Further information is available in documentation file '7463_bres_2015_change_in_firm_sampling.pdf'.

Linking to other business studies
These data contain Inter-Departmental Business Register reference numbers. These are anonymous but unique reference numbers assigned to business organisations. Their inclusion allows researchers to combine different business survey sources together. Researchers may consider applying for other business data to assist their research.

For Secure Lab projects applying for access to this study as well as to SN 6697 Business Structure Database and/or SN 7683 Business Structure Database Longitudinal, only postcode-free versions of the data will be made available.

Latest edition information
For the thirteenth edition (February 2024), the 'revised 2021' and 'provisional 2022' data files have been added.

The UK Business Data Survey (UKBDS), commissioned by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, began in 2021. The survey is a telephone- and online-based quantitative and qualitative study of UK businesses. It gathers evidence on the importance and awareness of digital data use for UK businesses and seeks to understand the role of digital data in UK businesses, international transfers of data and activities undertaken for data protection compliance.

The 2022 UKBDS was the second time the survey had been carried out. The quantitative survey took place from November 2021 to February 2022 and the qualitative interviews were undertaken in February 2022. A number of questions asked of businesses were new to the 2022 survey.

A survey conducted in 2023 shows what are the forms a company can use customers' data in the United States and United Kingdom. Almost ** percent of the time the companies use the data as a form of limiting the number of times an advertisement is shown to the customers and around ** percent of the time to save information, so the consumers do not have to insert them again when entering the website on other occasions. Receiving personalized ads in some form ranges between ** and ** percent.

The Management and Expectations Survey (MES) is a voluntary survey of British firms launched in 2017 to gather information on the use of structured management practices for the reporting period of 2016. The MES sample was a subset of the sample for the Annual Business Survey (ABS) (UK Data Archive SN 7451) for the 2016 reporting period, to allow the datasets to be linked. Researchers must still access the ABS as normal through the users’ chosen data access platform. This survey builds upon a previous ONS pilot survey examining management practices, the Management Practices Survey (MPS) (UK Data Archive SN 8182). Compared to the MPS, the MES has wider industry scope, including non‐manufacturing production and services industries; a larger sample size; an increase in the number of questions on management practices from 8 to 12; questions concerning managers and non‐managers separately.

The survey is designed to produce data that can be compared with a subset of the data collected in: the MPS, the US Census Bureau’s Management and Organizational Practices Survey (USMOPS) and the German Management and Organizational Practices Survey (GMOPS). The MES is more closely aligned (with regards to management practice questions) to the USMOPS and GMOPS than the MPS.

Data on enterprise births, deaths, active enterprises and survival rates in Barnet, as well as comparative data across Greater London boroughs.

This data is adapted from data from the Office for National Statistics and published by the GLA licensed under the Open Government Licence.

Comparative data and other information can also be found on the London Datastore.

Data includes:
1) the most recent annual figures for enterprise births and deaths. Births and deaths are identified by comparing active populations of enterprises for different years
2) time series of the number of births and deaths of entrprises together with a percentage of births and deaths to active enterprises in a given year
3) a time series of the number of active enterprises. Active enterprises are businesses that had either turnover or employment at any time during the reference period.
4) survival rates of enterprises for up to 5 years after birth

Data on size of firms (micro-business, SME, large) for business and employees in London by industry can be found on the ONS website.

More Business Demographics data on the ONS website

The Business Expenditure on Research and Development is an annual survey whose main purpose is to supply data for policy purposes on Science and Technology, of which Research and Development is an important part. It uniquely provides information on total Research and Development expenditure in the UK by business enterprises, total Research and Development employment and sources of funds. Data are used on a regular basis by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the Statistical Office of the European Communities (EUROSTAT) for international comparisons in their publications.

Linking to other business studies
These data contain Inter-Departmental Business Register reference numbers. These are anonymous but unique reference numbers assigned to business organisations. Their inclusion allows researchers to combine different business survey sources together. Researchers may consider applying for other business data to assist their research.

Postcodes for data up to 2017 are available only on special request. Data up to 2021 for UK and Northern Ireland are available only if approved by NISRA.

Latest Edition Information
For the thirteenth edition (May 2025), the 2022 and 2023 data have been added.

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