Open call for evidence

Survey questions: UK business data survey 2026 user engagement exercise

Published 6 May 2025

You can use the online survey to respond to these questions.

Introduction 

UK Business Data Survey 2026: User-engagement exercise  

The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) is seeking views from users of the UK Business Data Survey (UKBDS) on how it could be developed or improved in future. Your responses to this survey will inform this.  

Respondent information   

1.Are you aged 16 or over? (Yes / No – take to end)   

2.Are you answering this survey on behalf of an organisation or group, or an individual? (Individual, Organisation or group). 

3.(If Organisation or group at Q2) Please provide the name of the organisation or group. If you are responding on behalf of a specific team within your organisation, please also provide your team’s name. (Open text / Prefer not to say)

4.What sector do you work in? (Academia and research / Business and Commercial Sector / Government, including local government and public bodies / Think tanks / Voluntary community and social enterprise / Other (please specify) / (If not Organisation or group at Q2) Not applicable – I am responding in a personal capacity)   

5.May we contact you to discuss your response to this survey? This may be to follow up on any specific points we need to clarify. (Yes / No)   

6.(If Yes at Q5) Thank you for agreeing to be contacted in case we need to discuss your response to this survey. Please provide a contact name (Open text / Prefer not to say). Please provide an email address. (Open text)  

Current use of the UK Business Data Survey (UKBDS) 

7.How frequently do you use these statistics and information? (Weekly / Monthly / Quarterly / Annually / Rarely / Never)  

8.(If indicate use at Q7) Please describe how and why you use these statistics. Please be as specific as possible; for example, if you use the statistics to provide briefing and further analysis to others, it would be helpful to know what the end use is. (Open text)    

9.Thinking about the questions in the UKBDS that cover the following topics, please rate how useful you find them? (Very useful, somewhat useful, neutral, not very useful, not at all useful).  

• Data collection, including from other businesses (personal / non-personal) 

• Data sharing (personal / non personal), including reasons for doing so 

• Data analysis, the outcomes of the analysis and availability of data to businesses 

• Use of digital infrastructure, including types of infrastructure used, server locations, server outages or downtime and the impact of this 

• Types of personal data processed and reasons for processing special category data 

• Awareness and understanding of the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) 

• UK data protection laws or guidance, including actions prevented due to compliance, business staffing and training, business expenditure for data compliance and compliance actions in the past 12 months 

• Subject access requests, including the number of requests received and refused 

• International data flows, including types of data transferred outside of the UK, reasons for not sharing data outside of the UK, issues experienced and impact, and countries that businesses transfer data with 

• International transfer mechanisms, including legal safeguards used, number of Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs) put in place, expenditure of SCCs (both internally and externally) and difficulty of use 

Proposed plans for 2026 onwards 

10a.Do you believe we should continue to collect data on the types of digital infrastructure that businesses are using? This includes physical serves based in a business’ own premises, servers provided by an outsourced IT service, public cloud providers, private clouds etc. If you have any concerns or thoughts regarding this proposed removal, or a proposal of change(s) that could be made to this question, please also provide this in the text box associated with your response. (No, remove this question; Please provide details - optional / Yes, keep this question but modify it; Please provide details - optional / Yes, keep this question as it is; Please provide details – optional / No opinion)

10b.Do you believe we should continue to collect data on where data servers are located (such as in the UK, in the EU / EEA or the rest of the world)? If you have any concerns or thoughts regarding this proposed removal, or a proposal of change(s) that could be made to this question, please also provide this in the text box associated with your response. (No, remove this question; Please provide details - optional / Yes, keep this question but modify it; Please provide details - optional / Yes, keep this question as it is; Please provide details – optional / No opinion)

10c.Do you believe we should continue to collect data on whether businesses have experienced server or cloud outage or downtime and the impact that this has had on them? If you have any concerns or thoughts regarding this proposed removal, or a proposal of change(s) that could be made to this question, please also provide this in the text box associated with your response. (No, remove this question; Please provide details - optional / Yes, keep this question but modify it; Please provide details - optional / Yes, keep this question as it is; Please provide details – optional / No opinion)

10d.Do you believe we should continue to collect data on UK businesses’ data collection via cookies or similar technology? If you have any concerns or thoughts regarding this proposed removal, or a proposal of change(s) that could be made to this question, please also provide this in the text box associated with your response. (No, remove this question; Please provide details - optional / Yes, keep this question but modify it; Please provide details - optional / Yes, keep this question as it is; Please provide details – optional / No opinion)

11a.How useful would you find the inclusion of questions on the framework used to collect and process data? For example, the use of informed consent of data subjects to process their data for marketing purposes of advanced data processing. (Very useful, somewhat useful, neutral, not very useful, not at all useful). 

11b.How useful would you find the inclusion of questions around business use of public sector data? For example, understanding which public sector data sources UK businesses use. (Very useful, somewhat useful, neutral, not very useful, not at all useful). 

11c.How useful would you find expanded coverage of the types of data that businesses use? For example, sales or financial data, customer / user behaviour data, HR or payroll data or marketing data and research. (Very useful, somewhat useful, neutral, not very useful, not at all useful).

12.Are there any other topics or questions that are of particular interest and are likely to be relevant for 2026 and onwards? (Yes: Please provide details - optional / No / No opinion)  

13.Are you currently conducting/familiar with any research that may conflict with/duplicate this proposal? (Yes: Please provide details (optional) / No / No opinion)  

14.Would you be negatively impacted if the UK Business Data Survey was discontinued in its current format? (Yes: Please provide details (optional) / No / No opinion) 

15.Would you be negatively impacted if the UK Business Data Survey was discontinued in its entirety? (Yes: Please provide details (optional) / No / No opinion) 

16.Do you have any general feedback/further comments on the proposal above/proposed changes? (Yes: Please provide details / No)  

We thank you for your time spent taking this survey. Your response has been recorded. If you are interested in speaking to us about these statistics in future, please email us at ukbusinessdatasurvey@dsit.gov.uk.