Access the Deposited Data

The survey data collected in the 2011 WERS has been deposited with the UK Data Service (UKDS) and can be downloaded from the UKDS website for research use. Users will first need to register with the UKDS before they are given access to the data.

Details of how to access the 'Secure Access' version of the data are provided in the Data Linking section of this website.

Latest release

The latest release of the 2011 WERS survey data is the Sixth Edition (dated 2nd February 2015).

The Sixth Edition adds detailed industry codes, region codes and the FPQ data to the General Use data file. These data were previously only available on the 'Secure Access' version of the data file, which is available via the UKDS Secure Access portal or the ONS Microdata Laboratory.

The Fifth Edition (dated September 2014) added a set of Stata syntax files to the deposit. These Stata syntax files were used by the WERS Research Team to create derived variables used in the primary analysis, and to produce the tables presented in the First Findings report

Information on previous editions of the data is provided in the 'Read Me' notes on the UK Data Service website.

What has been deposited?

The 'General Use' file that has been deposited with the UK Data Service (UKDS) contains the vast majority of all data items collected as part of the 2011 WERS. Data from the Management Questionnaire, Worker Representative Questionnaire and the Survey of Employees are all contained within the one deposit.

Those data items which do not appear in the 'General Use' file can be categorised into two groups:

Permanently-withheld data items:

These contain information that would directly identify a workplace or respondent, such as the name of the workplace, the organization to which it belonged and verbatim answers. An example would be AORGNAME in the Survey of Managers. These data items have been permanently withheld in order to preserve the anonymity of respondents. The assurances made to respondents prior to their participation in the survey mean that these data items can never be made publicly available.

Restricted data items:

Some additional data items are currently only available in the 'Secure Access' version of the data. They comprise:

• Postcodes for all workplaces (for attaching additional geographical data or grouping workplaces into travel-to-work areas)

• Interdepartmental Business Register (IDBR) reference numbers for those workplaces where managers consented to the linking of WERS data with other data sources (MLINKDAT=Yes).

Details of how to access the 'Secure Access' version of the data are provided in the Data Linking section of this website.

Finding your way around the deposited data files

The Documentation section of this website provides links to all of the core documentation that has been deposited along with the WERS data at the UK Data Service. This includes an Introductory Note which gives guidance on some of the key features of the data including:

• Unique identifiers for each workplace in the dataset

• Variable naming and labelling conventions

• The coding of missing values

• The data structure for 'multiple response' sets

• Weighting variables

The Resources section of this website contains further information to help users with their analysis of the survey data. This includes answers to Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) from data users.


The 2011 WERS is a joint initiative by:
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