General Household/General Lifestyle Survey to end
Following consultation with users, the Office for National Statistics has decided that the General Lifestyle Survey (GLF) will not continue in its current format after January 2012. Full details are available in the Response to the future of the GLF survey consultation document, which states:
"ONS welcomes all of the responses received and notes the concerns. These responses will be taken into consideration during the next steps of this project. Given the need to harmonise UK and EU poverty indicators, and ensure efficient data collection, we propose that the GLF ceases to run in its current form from January 2012. Statistics on Income and Living Conditions required by European law (EU-SILC) will be collected via the Family Resources Survey (FRS) with a standalone survey providing the longitudinal SILC element. GLF questions not covered by EU-SILC will be collected using a separate survey, subject to continued funding for non-EU-SILC variables. Over the next six months, ONS will explore the exact format for this survey to best meet users' needs. Details will be made available later in the year."
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) undertook the consultation on the future of the General Household Survey/General Lifestyle Survey (GHS/GLF) which ended on 6 May 2011.
ESDS Government then compiled a response on behalf of the general GLF user community.
The consultation document stated that the aims of the consultation were to determine:
- How GLF data are currently used
- The implications of stopping GLF Survey data
- Alternative sources of equivalent information in the absence of the survey
We addressed each of these points in turn in the ESDS response to the GLF Consultation (PDF).
In addition, seven further documents were referenced within this response:
1. GLF usage figures
2. GLF publications
3. Wordle
4. Evidence of linked-topics research in the GHS by Professor Yaojun Li, University of Manchester
5. A review of the General Lifestyle Survey and Understanding Society by Jon Burton, Institute of Economic and Social Research
6. Opinions usage figures
7. ESDS response to ONS Work Programme Consultation – Dec 2010
A note of the ONS presentation at the GLF User Meeting 2011, regarding the future of the survey, is also available. In summary:
- ONS confirmed that the FRS will be the vehicle for the EUSILC questions (currently on GLF) from 2012 onwards
- The NHS Information Centre are proposing to withdraw funding for the 2011 GLF
- ONS propose replacing the GLF from 2012 with a new survey based on the Opinions survey (see link above)
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