Scottish household survey: information for interviewees

This section provides information for interviewees, including what to do if you have been selected and you then agree to be interviewed as well as what happens with the information you provide for the Scottish household survey.

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This section provides information for interviewees, including what to do if you have been selected and you then agree to be interviewed as well as what happens with the information you provide. 

More information for interviewers can be found on our contractor's (Ipsos MORI) website.

If you have been selected

You will receive a letter explaining that you have been chosen to take part in the survey. This will include an information leaflet.

An interviewer from Ipsos MORI Scotland will then call at your home.

Interviews can take place in the evenings and at weekends as well as during working hours. If you would like to arrange a specific time for the interviewer to visit, please Contact us.

Every interviewer and surveyor carries an ID card which he or she should show you. If you have any doubts about their identity, then again please Contact us.


If you agree to be interviewed

The interviewer asks questions and enters the responses into a laptop computer there and then. For some items, the interviewer will show you some cards with options for your response printed on them.

Interview length varies depending on your answers, and whether you take part in the household or random adult part of the questionnaire or both.  The householder survey take 15-20 minutes, the random adult survey takes around 40 minutes. 

You do not have to answer any item if you don't want to - you can just refuse and the interviewer will carry on to the next one. You do not have to say why you did not want to answer.


After the interview

The information you give will be combined with the information from all the other interviews carried out, to produce statistics about the features of Scottish households. It will be anonymous (ie no-one will be able to identify you from your answers) and will remain confidential.

Contact

Please email Scottish Household Survey ( shs@gov.scot ) to provide feedback on the SHS or to request further information on any issue, including ad-hoc requests for analysis and for people wishing to opt-out of taking part in the survey.

Interviews

If you do not wish to take part in the survey, please use the freephone number or our feedback form to have your household address removed from our lists:

Tel: 0808 238 5376

ScotStat

If you wish to be added to the e-mail mailing list to be kept informed of details of SHS developments, you should register your interest in 'Population and Household Surveys' and/or the Scottish Household Survey' sub-topic on the ScotStat Register.

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