SN 5577 -ONS Omnibus Survey, March 2005

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Title:
ONS Omnibus Survey, March 2005

Subject Categories:
General - Employment and labour
ONS Omnibus Survey - Major studies
Drug abuse, alcohol and smoking - Health
Social attitudes and behaviour - Society and culture
Specific diseases and medical conditions - Health
Crime and law enforcement - Law, crime and legal systems
Travel and transport

Depositor(s):
Office for National Statistics. Social and Vital Statistics Division

Principal Investigator(s):
Office for National Statistics. Social and Vital Statistics Division

Sponsor(s):
Department of Customs and Excise
Department for Transport
Health and Safety Executive
Brunel University
London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
Cancer Research UK

Abstract:
The ONS Opinions Survey (OPN), previously known as ONS Omnibus Survey or Omnibus, is a regular, multi-purpose survey which was carried out in eight months of the year until April 2005. From this point it has run monthly. It started operating commercially in 1990 and was set up originally to meet the needs of government departments for a survey that used short and simple sets of questions, had greater statistical reliability than private sector omnibus surveys and a properly designed random sample. Now, however, an increasing number of academics are finding it a valuable research tool.

The Opinions Survey is used for a number of purposes, for example:

to provide quick answers to questions of immediate interest
to provide information on topics that do not require a full survey
to develop and pilot questions for other surveys
to sift for subgroups that can be followed up in another survey

History
From January 2008 the ONS Omnibus Survey changed its name to the ONS Opinions Survey and became part of the Integrated Household Survey (IHS). As a result, certain classificatory variables were altered to harmonise with the rest of the surveys that form the IHS. For further information, see detailed breakdown of the changes contained within the documentation for 2008 studies onwards.

Subsequently, in January 2010, the OPN component was dropped from the IHS due to only one individual per household being interviewed, while the IHS requires questions to be asked of all household members. This process significantly increased the length of the OPN interview and, therefore, OPN reverted back to interviewing one household member, but still contains questions harmonised to the IHS.

Special Licence Access Opinions Survey data
With effect from 2008, the decision was made by ONS to make all new and currently available Disability Monitoring data (Module 363) and Contraception data (Module 170) issuable only to Approved Researchers under Special Licence access conditions due to the disclosive nature of the modules. See the ONS Opinions Survey Special Licence Access datasets page. Work to carry out the withdrawal of these modules from existing Omnibus datasets is currently underway. Standard End User Licence versions will be re-deposited and again made available at a future date.

Main Topics:
Each month's questionnaire consists of two elements: core questions, covering demographic information, are asked each month together with non-core questions that vary from month to month.
The non-core questions for this month were:

Tobacco consumption (Module 210): this module was asked on behalf of the Department of Customs and Excise to help estimate the amount of tobacco consumed as cigarettes.
Working conditions (Module 346): this module was asked on behalf of researchers at the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and questions asked relate to assessing the way people work and their levels of job-related stress.
Transport Direct (Module 351): this module was asked on behalf of the Department of Transport which is interested in finding out which travel information services respondents have used and what they think of them.
Disability monitoring (Module 363): the Special Licence version of this module is held under SN 6469.
Concern about crime on public transport (Module 366): this module was asked on behalf of the Department for Transport which is interested in perceptions of fear when using public transport.
Cancer registration (Module 369): this module was asked on behalf of Brunel University, the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and Cancer Research UK and asks questions about cancer research and health information relating to cancer, personal privacy, and the balance between the two.
Transport issues (Module 371): this module was asked on behalf of the Department for Transport and questions cover a range of different transport issues.

Coverage:
Dates of Fieldwork: March 2005
Country: Great Britain
Spatial Units: Government Office Regions (GORs); Standard Regions
Observation Units: Individuals; Families/households

Universe Sampled:
Location of Units of Observation:National
Population:Adults, aged 16 or over, living in private households in Great Britain.

Methodology:
Time Dimensions: Repeated cross-sectional study
monthly (up to year 2000), eight cycles per year (up to April 2005), monthly thereafter.
Sampling Procedures: Multi-stage stratified random sample
Number of Units: 1,703 (obtained)
Method of Data Collection: Face-to-face interview
Weighting: Weighting used. See documentation for details.

Language(s) of Written Materials:
Study Description: English
Study Documentation: English

Access:
Access Conditions: The depositor has specified that registration is required and standard conditions of use apply. The depositor may be informed about usage. See terms and conditions for further information.
Availability: ESDS Government, UK Data Archive
Contact: Help desk: govsurveys@esds.ac.uk
Please Note: The data for the monthly Opinions surveys have been supplied to the UK Data Archive (UKDA) in such a way that core demographic data are included in each module. This allows users to use each module individually, although modules cannot be ordered individually from the UKDA.

Date of Release:
First Edition: 24 September 2007

Copyright:
Crown copyright material is reproduced with the permission of the Controller of HMSO and the Queen's Printer for Scotland. Copyright of the individual modules resides with their respective sponsors.

Documentation:

Format	Name	Size in Kilobytes	Description
PDF	5577userguide.pdf	406	User guide
HTML	UKDA_Study_5577_Information.htm	22	Study information and citation

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Catalogue record last updated:
21 June 2010

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Users are advised to visit the ONS Opinions Survey (formerly the ONS Omnibus Survey) web pages for support in using these data, additional resources, and news and events.

Included in these pages is a list of the modules (non-core questions) and for each module a list of the months in which it appears.

> > SN 5577 -ONS Omnibus Survey, March 2005