National statistics

Service Family Accommodation Statistics: Background Quality Report 2021

Published 27 May 2021

Background Quality Report: UK Service Family Accommodation 2021

Last updated: 27 May 2021

1. Introduction

1.1 Overview

This is an annual publication which provides figures on UK Service Family Accommodation (SFA), including counts of dwellings (permanent holdings) by country, counts and percentages of vacant dwellings, and counts by standard for condition as at the 31 March for the year 2000 and each year from 2010 to 2021.

Data for both are provided from administrative systems in the Defence Infrastructure Organisation (DIO). All the tables in this publication are National Statistics.

1.2 Background and Context

The Ministry of Defence (MOD) publishes a wide range of statistics with the main purpose to; inform policy and decision making within the Department, to measure the performance of the Ministry of Defence against Government and Parliament targets, and also to inform general debate in Government, Parliament and the wider public.

The provision of good quality living accommodation for Service personnel and their families is managed by the MOD’s Defence Infrastructure Organisation (DIO) and should meet the aims set out in the Armed Forces Covenant. DIO manages these properties in the UK (and some overseas locations), including planning targeted improvement programmes and future requirements.

This background quality report covers the Service Family Accommodation publication published on the Defence Statistics website on GOV.UK: Service Family Accommodation Bulletin Index.

1.3 Methodology and Production

Data on SFA is provided by regional contractors to DIO who enter it into an electronic asset register (database). Data is extracted from this system by DIO and collated to produce Tables 1 and 2 in this publication.

2. Relevance

This publication is the primary means by which information on UK SFA is made widely available.

The information in this publication has a range of users including the media, politicians, academic researchers and the general public who use the information to:

• gain an understanding of number and condition of UK SFA;

• set the context for other information on Defence.

For information on pre-release access to the publications please see the Defence Statistics pre-release access list web-page: Pre Release Access List people in the roles with access receive pre-release access to the publication up to 24 hours in advance of the publication.

Public accountability requires that MOD should account for its assets, as well as knowing where they are and how they are used. Although internal systems may be sufficient for internal use, this publication makes information available publicly, regularly and as a time series. Definitions and other information are also included in the tables so that the data are set in context and can be understood by a lay audience, as well as those with professional interests.

The publication also provides evidence for the outcomes of policy initiatives, such as reductions in the percentage of vacant SFA and improvements to the surveyed condition of the stock of SFA. Generally, this is of interest in terms of policy effectiveness and the use of public funds, but may be of particular interest to those concerned with the welfare of the Armed Forces and their families.

3. Accuracy

The data in these tables have been extracted from a MOD database which is considered to be reliable and there are no significant concerns over the accuracy of data. In addition to being checked by DIO staff who have carried out data extraction / collation, the tables are reviewed by a subject matter expert as a part of the validation process. The data in these tables have also been subjected to a sense-check by Government Statisticians.

4. Timeliness and Punctuality

As a National Statistic, the release date for this publication was pre-announced on the MOD’s Calendar of Upcoming Releases section of GOV.UK in accordance with the guidance set out in the Code of Practice for Statistics.

5. Accessibility and Clarity

This publication is published on the Service Family Accommodation homepage on GOV.UK as a HTML document. The tables are available as an OpenDocument Spreadsheet (ODS) file to enable the figures to be reused.

Within the tables there is further information to clarify definitions, advise users of caveats in the data, and explain changes since previous years.

The background information section assists with the accessibility and clarity of this bulletin by setting out the context of the statistics, providing definitions and explanations of the terms used and giving some brief information on methods and data quality.

6. Coherence and Comparability

In this publication, both tables cover the years 2000 and 2010 to 2021, thus providing a decade time series, together with a snapshot of the beginning of the century. The introductory material explains the impact on the statistics of factors that affect coherence over time.

7. Trade-offs between Output Quality Components

The process for collating information requires substantial checking and includes approval by subject matter experts. The data are requested early in the publication process to allow time for quality assurance; the impact of this is that any last minute changes to underlying information may not be captured. However, DIO have brought the release date forward from December to May over the last six years.

8. Assessment of User Needs and Perceptions

The MOD has previously held regular consultation meetings with users of Defence Official Statistics, which provided a forum for user feedback on their needs and perceptions. Proposed changes were set out at the consultation meetings in order to gain feedback from both internal and external users. More recently in April 2016, a public consultation was held on the MOD’s Statistics Plan. The MOD invites users to provide feedback to the statistical output teams on any of their publications or reports using the contact information on the front of the publication.

9. Performance, Cost and Respondent Burden

The outputs are produced from the administrative data provided by the DIO. The benefit of the MOD publishing the data on SFA is that these administrative data are placed in the public domain, and as National Statistics, in a way that ensures their independence from political interference and adherence to quality standards. The small burden that this places on the data suppliers is considered to be worthwhile to achieve this, and the consequent public accountability provided by their publication.

10. Confidentiality, Transparency and Security

This publication does not contain any identifiable personal data.

All staff involved in the production process have signed the Data Protection Act and all MOD, Civil Service and data protection regulations are adhered to. All data are stored, accessed and analysed using the MOD’s restricted network and IT systems.

We adhere to the principles and protocols laid out in the Code of Practice for Statisticsand comply with pre-release access arrangements. The Pre-Release Access List is available online.

11. References

Reference	Website Location
1	Statistics at MOD Homepage
2	MOD’s Timetable of Future Releases
3	Publication Homepage on GOV.UK
4	Code of Practice for Statistics
5	Defence Statistics Pre-release Access Lists

Contact details

This publication has been produced by the Data, Analytics and Insight team in the Defence Infrastructure Organisation.

We welcome feedback on our statistical products. If you have any comments or questions about this publication or about our statistics in general, you can contact us as follows:

Email: DIO-DAIAnalytics@mod.gov.uk

If you wish to correspond by mail, our postal address is:

Data, Analytics and Insight (National Statistics)
Defence Infrastructure Organisation
Kingston Road
Sutton Coldfield
West Midlands
B75 7RL

For general MOD enquiries, please call: 020 7218 9000.