Health and Care Experience Survey 2025 to 2026: Technical Report

Data Entry and Fieldwork Quality Control

Data Capture

Once respondents received the initial letter, they could complete the questionnaire online or via the survey helpline. Data from these responses was captured automatically for the online questionnaire, or by the helpline team for telephone completions.

Following the reminder letter, paper copies of questionnaires received were logged and scanned on a daily basis by staff at IQVIA. A verification process was then carried out for each batch scanned and a number of integrity checks were undertaken to ensure that the scanning process had worked correctly and all data had been captured as expected.

Data from online questionnaires is automatically stored alongside the data from the paper questionnaires, and held separately from the names and addresses of people who were sampled for the survey.

Verification and Upload Process

Once captured, all data were checked in house by IQVIA according to pre-set verification rules, by staff who have been given training and detailed instructions about the survey. The data entry system ensured that only valid answer codes for each question could be entered and that the correct data appeared in each field. Other checks included ensuring that numeric data was the correct format and that fields were not truncated in error.

Once the survey responses were transferred to Public Health Scotland and Scottish Government statisticians, further validation checks were run on the data to ensure data integrity was maintained.

Secure Disposal

The names and addresses of people who were selected for the survey were stored securely by IQVIA until the survey fieldwork was completed and then deleted.

Once processed, all returned questionnaires were immediately stored by IQVIA in labelled containers and archived in a secure room on-site. The returned questionnaires were shredded once the data had been captured and quality assured by IQVIA.

Patient names and addresses were destroyed by IQVIA once the survey responses dataset had been finalised. IQVIA deleted scanned copies of questionnaires and the survey responses dataset once PHS and the Scottish Government has quality assured the datasets.

IQVIA used approved destruction software to destroy the data, including helpline logs, and provided a certificate of destruction to PHS and the Scottish Government to prove that the data had been destroyed.