2020 Provisional and 2019 Revised Estimates Released

Provisional 2020 and revised 2019 Business Register and Employment Survey (BRES) estimates were released at 09:30 on Friday 9th November 2021.

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.

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 .