Business Register and Employment Survey (BRES)

ONS released 2013 provisional Business Register and Employment Survey (BRES) estimates as well as 2012 revised estimates at 09:30 on Thursday 25 Sep 2014. This release consists of a statistical bulletin as well as high level 2013 provisional and 2012 estimates published on the ONS website. This year ONS have also produced an interactive map where users can see what industries are the biggest employers in their area.

As well as the release of the above information, more detailed 2013 provisional and 2012 revised BRES estimates have been made available on Nomis. Although some of the information on Nomis is open access (see below for details), access to some BRES datasets requires special authorisation - see the section on Accessing BRES Data on Nomis below. Users will not necessarily have access to these restricted datasets immediately at 9.30 on Thursday 25 Sep 2014, but applications will be reviewed and, where appropriate, access granted as soon as possible.

Applications are processed by the Access to Data team at ONS who you should contact with any queries about the process:
      tel: 01633 444015
      email: notice.applications@ons.gov.uk

BRES Data on Nomis

Key features:

  • Date: The current release included new estimates for 2013 and revised estimates for 2012.
  • Geography: Estimates are available down to lower layer super output areas / Scottish data zones.
  • Gender: no male/female split is available in BRES. Male and female employee splits are not collected in the survey because some businesses find it difficult to provide this information and the quality of the data can be poor.
  • Employment status: Figures are available for full-time, part-time and total employees. Employment figures are also available which are employees plus working owners.
  • Industry: the 2007 Standard Industrial Classification (SIC 2007) is used for industry breakdowns. Figures are available down to the 5-digit subclass level. Farm agriculture (subclass 01000) is available at region and country level only.
  • Public/private: a separate dataset gives estimates for public and private sector employment.
  • Confidentiality rules: ONS primary disclosure rules are applied to BRES data output from Nomis. Disclosive figures are flagged with an exclamation mark (!) and must be removed before passing onto anyone not named on your notice. You must also manually apply secondary suppression as detailed in the BRES User Guide (pdf) and accompanying training document (pdf).
  • Data quality: BRES is based on a sample survey so estimates are subject to sampling errors which need to be taken into account when interpreting the data. A separate article provides information about BRES quality measures.

Accessing BRES Data on Nomis

BRES data is available in two datasets:

  • Business Register and Employment Survey   [link to data]
  • Business Register and Employment Survey - public/private sector data   [link to data]

Only the public/private sector dataset is open access. To use the other BRES dataset, you must first obtain a Chancellor of the Exchequer's Notice from ONS.

If you have a Nomis account, you can check whether you already have access from the BRES access option in my account. If you do not have your own account, you must first register for an account. Accounts are free and should only take a few minutes to setup.

Notices are free (this is a change from previous years when a charge applied). To apply complete the online application:

Apply for a New Chancellor's Notice

Applications are processed by the Access to Data team at ONS who you should contact with any queries about the process:
      tel: 01329 444015
      email: notice.applications@ons.gov.uk