DOI: 10.5255/ukda-sn-8653-6
title: Business Insights and Conditions Survey: Waves 1-32, 2020-2021: Secure Access
title: BICS; Business Impact of COVID-19 Survey

description: &lt;div&gt;The &lt;span style="font-style: italic;"&gt;Business Insights and Conditions Surve&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-family: &quot;Helvetica&quot;, sans-serif;"&gt;&lt;span style="font-style: italic;"&gt;y&lt;/span&gt; (BICS, formerly&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:&quot;Helvetica&quot;,sans-serif; mso-fareast-font-family:Calibri;mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin;mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;mso-fareast-language:EN-US;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA"&gt;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;span style="font-style: italic;"&gt; the Business Impact of COVID-19 Survey)&lt;/span&gt; is a voluntary fortnightly survey of businesses developed to deliver timely indicators to help understand the impact of the coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19).  The scope of the survey has been expanded to explore other economic-related issues such as the European Union transition period (Brexit).  The survey captures businesses responses on how their turnover, workforce, prices, trade and business resilience have been affected in the two week reference period.&lt;br class="Apple-interchange-newline"&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;The data should be treated with caution as results reflect the characteristics of those who responded and not necessarily the wider business population. Comparison of the proportions of businesses' trading status between waves should be treated with caution because of the voluntary nature of the survey, the difference in response rates and dependency on those businesses that only responded in particular waves. These data should not be used in place of official statistics. The survey was designed to give an indication of the impact of the coronavirus on businesses and a timelier estimate than other surveys.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;div&gt;The latest publications from the survey can be found on the &lt;a href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/businessindustryandtrade/business/businessservices/bulletins/coronavirusandtheeconomicimpactsontheuk/previousReleases" target="_blank" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"&gt;Coronavirus and the Economic Impacts on the UK Statistical Bulletins&lt;/a&gt; webpage (renamed the Business Insights and Impact on the UK Economy page, which includes analysis for Wave 18 onwards).  All the questions asked in each wave of the survey can be found on the &lt;a href="https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthandsocialcare/conditionsanddiseases/articles/businessimpactofcovid19surveyquestions/previousReleases" target="_blank" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"&gt;BICS Survey Questions Articles&lt;/a&gt; webpage.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;span style="font-style: italic;"&gt;Linking to other business studies&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;These data contain IDBR 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.&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt;&lt;br&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;span style="font-style: italic;"&gt;Latest edition information&lt;/span&gt;&lt;br&gt;For the sixth edition (August 2021), data files for Waves 31 and 32 have been added and the documentation has also been updated to cover the same time period.&lt;br&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;/div&gt;