Title

Businesses that are innovation active

Last update

May 2024 May 2024

Next update

2026

Publishing organisation

Welsh Government

Source 1

UK Innovation Survey

Contact email

economic.stats@gov.wales

Designation

None

Lowest level of geographical disaggregation

UK regions

Geographical coverage

UK regions

Languages covered

English and Welsh

Data licensing

You may use and re-use this data free of charge in any format or medium, under the terms of the Open Government License - see http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence

Weblinks

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/community-innovation-survey

Keywords

Innovation

General description

This data shows the percentage of businesses that are innovation active. The UK definition of innovation is based on an Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) definition, outlined in the Oslo Manual 2018. Businesses are considered to be innovation active if they:
• Introduced a new or significantly improved product (goods or service) or process;
• Engaged in innovation projects not yet complete or abandoned;
• Acquired new and significantly improved forms of organisation, business structures or practices and marketing concepts or strategies.

Data collection and calculation

The UK Innovation Survey is funded by the Department for Business and Trade (DBT). The survey was conducted on behalf of DBT by the Office for National Statistics (ONS). The UK Innovation Survey is part of a wider Community Innovation Survey (CIS) covering EU countries. The survey is based on a core questionnaire developed by the European Commission (Eurostat) and Member States. The UK Innovation Survey 2015 sampled almost 30 thousand UK enterprises. The survey was voluntary and conducted by means of both a postal questionnaire and telephone interview for businesses that had not yet completed a postal response. The survey covered enterprises with 10 or more employees in sections C-K of the Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) 2007. The sample is drawn from the ONS Inter-Departmental Business Register.

Frequency of publication

Every two years

Data reference periods

2008/10 to 2020/22

Users, uses and context

The data feeds into the economic analyses and other policy related work. It provides both a periodic snapshot of innovation behaviour and has the additional benefit of the panel dataset which facilitates longitudinal studies and evaluations of innovation policy.

Statistical quality

As the data come from a survey, the results are sample-based estimates and therefore subject to differing degrees of sampling variability, i.e. the true value for any measure lies in a differing range about the estimated value. This range or sampling variability increases as the detail in the data increases, for example individual local authority data are subject to higher variability than Wales data.

Name

Econ0100