Scottish Household Survey Annual Report

3 1 Introduction to the Survey 1.1 Introduction The Scottish Household Survey (SHS) is a Scotland-wide face-to-face survey of a random sample of people in private residences. The SHS is voluntary and interviewer-administered in people’s homes. Computer Assisted Personal Interviewing (CAPI) is used to collect the survey data. This facilitates faster interviews, automatic edit checks and a quick flow of information from the survey interviewer to the survey database. Though participation is voluntary, a high positive response is important in helping us make representative estimates for Scotland. The survey started in 1999 and up to 2011 followed a fairly consistent survey design. From 2012 onwards, the survey was substantially redesigned to include elements of the Scottish House Condition Survey 1 (SHCS) including the follow-up physical survey component. The SHS is now essentially three surveys in one: Transport and Travel in Scotland Survey 2 , the Scottish House Condition Survey as well as the SHS. The survey is run through a consortium led by Ipsos MORI. The SHS covers a wide-range of topics and is designed to provide reliable and up-to-date information on the composition, characteristics, attitudes and behaviours of private households and individuals in Scotland, nationally and for local authorities, as well as on the physical condition of Scotland’s homes. It covers a wide range of topics to allow links to be made between different policy areas. The SHS aims to  meet central and local Government needs for priority policy relevant data across a broad range of topics,  be understandable and useful to stakeholders, with built in flexibility in order to respond to different data needs regarding geography and changes over time, 1 https://www.gov.scot/collections/scottish-house-condition-survey 2 https://www.transport.gov.scot/our-approach/statistics/#42764