Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) conducts a quarterly survey to collect capital expenditure data for various industry groups by asset. It is a statutory survey with a stratified random sample of approximately 26,000 to 32,000 businesses selected from the Inter-Departmental Business Register, where the strata are defined by Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) 2003 (SIC 2007 from Q1 2010) and employment size of the business. The net capital expenditure (acquisitions less disposals) is calculated and is grossed to give estimates for the total population for the industry groups. The estimates are deflated and then chain-linked. Following deflation, chained volume measures and current price series are seasonally adjusted. Results from the survey provide essential information for the National Accounts and feed into the compilation of gross capital formation. Linking to other business studies These data contain Inter-Departmental Business Register reference numbers. These are anonymous but unique reference numbers assigned to business organisations. Their inclusion allows researchers to combine different business survey sources together. Researchers may consider applying for other business data to assist their research. Move to Quarterly Acquisitions and Disposals of Capital Assets Survey From quarter 1 2015, the Quarterly Capital Expenditure Survey moved to a more detailed survey called the Quarterly Acquisitions and Disposals of Capital Assets Survey (QCAS). Data and documentation from this new survey will be available from the UK Data Archive Secure Access service under SN 7882. For the third edition (February 2016), all data and documentation has been updated and enhanced. In addition, data files for 2013q2 to 2014q4 have been added.
Main Topics:
The survey captures the value of capital assets bought and sold. This includes total acquisitions and disposals; acquisitions and disposals of land and existing buildings, vehicles, computer hardware, and other capital equipment; acquisitions only of new building work (excluding dwellings), or other (construction) work of a capital nature, and computer software. Exploration expenditure is also collected for Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) 1110 level.
One-stage stratified or systematic random sample
Postal survey
