Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.
The Scottish Register of Employment (SRE) is an industrial database, collected using a variety of sources, in order to gather information about Scottish industry for use by the Scottish Executive. It was discontinued when new survey results containing this information became available from the Office of National Statistics' (ONS) UK-wide Inter-Departmental Business Register and Annual Census of Production, which was later replaced as part of the Annual Respondents Database held at the UK Data Archive under SN 6644. The survey encompasses all business units in Scotland that have 11 or more employees, and Standard Industrial Classification 1992 (SIC92) codes between 1511 and 3710 - essentially manufacturing units. Manufacturing units are classified to industrial groupings on the basis of the latest available information on their principal products, which may not always correspond to their activities in earlier years. Observations relate to a single manufacturing unit (factory) at a single site, not a single company. Many companies have more than one manufacturing unit in Scotland. The dataset includes both UK-owned and non-UK-owned manufacturing units in Scotland. It is understood that no written records remain of how the data were gathered, but apparently this was done through a variety of means, including returns to the ONS, direct surveying of businesses, analysis of press articles and earlier databases. According to the University of Edinburgh Data Library Catalogue web site, the survey was discontinued in 1993. However, the data file deposited for Secure Access contains additional limited data for the period 1994-1998. Users should be wary of using post-1993 data, as apparently the database stopped being fully updated around this time period. Also, a variable that appears to include company references contains values that are not in the correct format for linking to current ONS datasets. Geographical references: postcodes The postcodes available in the data file are pseudo-anonymised postcodes. The real postcodes are not available due to the potential risk of identification of the observations. However, these replacement postcodes retain the inherent nested characteristics of real postcodes, and will allow researchers to aggregate observations to other geographic units, e.g. wards, super output areas, etc. In the dataset, the variable of the replacement postcode is 'new_PC'. An aggregated standard End User Licence version of the Scottish Register of Employment dataset for the years 1950-1993 is held under UK Data Archive Study Number 4085.
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The survey includes the following information for each manufacturing unit by year:opening and closure datesnumber of full and part-time employeesdescription of main activityStandard Industrial Codes for 1980 and 1992business activitycountry of ownership
No sampling (total universe)
all manufacturing units with 11 or more employees
No information recorded, but apparently from returns to ONS, direct surveying of companies, analysi
