2018 Provisional and 2017 Revised Estimates Released

Provisional 2018 and revised 2017 Business Register and Employment Survey (BRES) estimates were released at 09:30 on Thursday 26 September 2019.

BRES publishes employee and employment estimates at detailed geographical and industrial levels. BRES is regarded as the definitive official government source of employee statistics by industry.

BRES estimates now include farms agriculture figures at a Local Authority District geography and this data has been reworked back to 2009. For specific years where these data were unavailable ONS has produced modelled estimates.

Access Changes to BRES Estimates

Access to BRES data on Nomis continues to be via a two-level access system:

  1. Open access datasets. These allow anyone, including non-UK based individuals and organisations, to access rounded estimates without restriction. Open access datasets contain the same breakdowns as the safeguarded access datasets but outputs are subject to higher rounding boundaries for disclosure control purposes.

  2. Safeguarded access datasets. These provide access to BRES estimates at a lower level of rounding than the open access datasets and are only available to UK-based individuals and organisations. Special authorisation via an End User Licence (EUL) agreement is required to access safeguarded datasets. Safeguarded data can only be viewed and accessed by EUL holders and may not be placed in the public domain. To apply for safeguarded access complete the online application

These datasets are available under the Business Register and Employment Survey section in the query data tool.

If you have any queries about the application process, contact the BRES team via email at notice.applications@ons.gov.uk or telephone 01633 456903.

Any user of BRES estimates who wishes to still access unrounded estimates can still do so by applying for access through the Secure Research Service (SRS). Details on how to do so can be obtained from the SRS team by emailing Research.Support@ons.gov.uk or telephoning +44 (0)1329 447871 .