Respondent information

Why has my household been chosen?

The National Survey for Wales is designed to gather the views of people in Wales on a variety of issues such as health, education, and local services. To visit every address in Wales would take too long and cost too much money. Instead, we select a representative sample of addresses and ask people at these addresses to take part in the study.

Every year we will select 25,000 households to take part in this research. These households are chosen at random from the Royal Mail’s list of addresses. Interviewers do not know who lives at the address until they visit it.

Once an address has been selected for the study, we cannot replace it with another address. This means that we rely on the goodwill of those who have been chosen.

Selecting addresses in this way means that the study will represent the views of people in Wales as a whole.

What does taking part involve?

If your address has been selected for the National Survey for Wales, you should receive a letter informing you. The letter will contain a leaflet telling you more about the study.  You will then receive a visit from an interviewer.

The Welsh Government awarded the fieldwork for the National Survey for Wales contract to two independent research agencies: TNS-BMRB and Beaufort Research.

Please note that all TNS-BMRB and Beaufort interviewers carry an identity card and will have informed the local police that they are working in your area. Please ask to see an identity card if you are unsure about a caller’s identity, and you can call the local police to check that the interviewer is legitimate.

The interviewer will ask a few questions about the people who live at the address. If more than one person lives at the address they will randomly select one person aged 16 or over to take part in the study. Selecting one person in this way helps to ensure that the study represents everyone in Wales.

The interviewer can only interview the person who has been selected. No-one else in the household can take their place. The success of the study relies on the goodwill and help of those who are chosen to take part.

The interviewer can make an appointment to carry out the interview at a convenient time for the person selected. You can also arrange an appointment by calling TNS-BMRB or Beaufort using the telephone number listed in the letter you received.

Can I take part in Welsh?

Yes – many of the interviewers working on the study speak Welsh. If you would like the interview to be conducted in Welsh, please tell the interviewer who calls. If the interviewer does not speak Welsh, they can arrange for you to be visited by a Welsh speaking interviewer. Or, you can arrange for a Welsh speaking interviewer to visit you once you have received the letter telling you your household has been selected to take part in the study, simply by calling the freephone number listed in the letter/leaflet you received.

Is the study confidential?

Yes - any information you give to us will be treated in the strictest confidence, in accordance with the Data Protection Act. Results are only ever presented as aggregated statistics and not in a way which could reveal your identity. Your details will not be used for marketing purposes.

Contact us

If you have any further questions about the survey please contact Sam Sullivan on 0800 015 2479 or by email at: nationalsurveyforwales@tns-bmrb.co.uk.

Alternatively, please contact the Welsh Government directly on 0300 060 3300 or by email at: surveys@wales.gsi.gov.uk.