Over the last seven years the United Kingdom Office for National Statistics has been implementing a series of initiatives to improve the collection and processing of business statistics data in the UK. The paper describes the recent history and covers proposals which are at present either at a pilot stage or projected for the next four years. A range of new technology solutions have been applied to data collection. Document imaging and scanned forms have replaced paper forms for all processes. For many of the smaller inquiries Telephone Data Entry (TDE) is increasingly being used to collect the data. Pilots of data collection through the Internet have also been carried out. Having virtually all incoming data in electronic format has allowed the introduction of workflow systems across a wide range of data collection activities. The paper covers the future strategy which will primarily centre around the development of data collection on the Internet and changes to the scanning systems that will allow data to be captured by question providing the potential for much greater flexibility in business form design. The paper also covers some of the major processing developments which have focused on automatic and prioritised editing.
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