Monday, September 23, 2013

UK Business Structure Database (BSD)

The Business Structure Database (BSD) is a dataset made available without fee for research porposes, which contains a number of variables for almost all business organisations in the UK. The BSD is derived primarily from the Inter-Departmental Business Register (IDBR), which is a live register of data collected by HM Revenue and Customs via VAT and Pay As You Earn (PAYE) records. The IDBR data are complimented with data from ONS business surveys. Timeframe available is 1997-2011.

The following variables are available for enterprises and local units:

    employment (and employees)
    turnover
    Standard Industrial Classification (1992, 2003 and 2007 classifications are available)
    legal status (e.g. sole proprietor, partnership, public corporation, non-profit organisation etc)
    foreign ownership
    birth (company start date)
    death (termination date of trading)

'Employment' includes business owners, whereas 'employees' measures the number of staff, excluding owners.

Full list of variables is listed here:

http://www.esds.ac.uk/doc/6697/mrdoc/excel/variables_in_idbr_1997_2005_with_ent_code_generator.xls

Registration is required and standard conditions of use apply.

http://discover.ukdataservice.ac.uk/catalogue?sn=6697