Provision of Development and Delivery of Feasibility Test for Online Collection of Crime Statistics

About the Office for National Statistics (ONS)

ONS is the UK's largest independent producer of official statistics and is the National Statistical Institute for the UK. Formally, it is the executive office of the UK Statistics Authority, a non-Ministerial Department established by the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007. It is responsible for collecting and publishing statistics related to the economy, population, and society at national, regional, and local levels. ONS plays a leading role in national and international good practice in the production of official statistics.

Introduction

ONS (the Authority) is currently undertaking a programme of development work to enhance the collection of crime statistics through the introduction of an online survey. This builds on development work conducted to date for the Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW).

This procurement intends to fulfil requirements by contracting with a single or multiple suppliers to test feasibility of collecting data online and improving statistics on crime victimisation and public perceptions of crime.

In 2026-27, we are aiming to set up and run a feasibility test to produce estimates of anti-social behaviour and perceptions of policing. The survey length is expected to average around 30 minutes and sample size requirement of approximately 15,000 interviews to allow for estimates for 7 priority Police Force Areas (PFAs) and a national estimate (England and Wales). Exact sample design and requirements will be agreed with the contractor. Following a successful feasibility test, ONS expects to launch a larger scale online survey (likely to be subject to a separate procurement exercise) in 2027-28.

We will also be using this feasibility test to pilot partially redesigned crime screeners and victimisation modules to assess progress and inform the next iteration of research and development.

ONS is seeking to contract with suppliers that can provide expertise in the following areas: -

-Questionnaire development and cognitive testing, particularly in transitioning face-to-face surveys online.

-Usability and cogability testing of online surveys.

-Survey design for online and multi-mode surveys (including sample design, weighting, and respondent selection approaches).

-Data collection and respondent engagement approaches for online surveys

ONS is seeking to procure up to four separate lots of work:

a. Questionnaire development and cognitive interviews for CSEW modules (modules to be confirmed)

b. Development of the screener and victimization modules for online completion.

c. End-to-end testing, usability and/or cogability testing for an online survey instrument

d. Survey design and fieldwork delivery for online survey feasibility test

Previous development work can be found here:

Research on Transforming the Crime Survey for England and Wales Work package A: Developing and testing an online version of the CSEW questionnaire (2022) 

https://27192314.fs1.hubspotusercontent-eu1.net/hubfs/27192314/CSEW files/CSEW Transformation Research Work Package A Main Report.pdf  

Consultation response (7 November 2022) 

https://consultations.ons.gov.uk/external-affairs/crime-consultation/results/csewconsultationresponsedocumentpdf.pdf  

https://consultations.ons.gov.uk/external-affairs/crime-consultation/  

Transformation of the Crime Survey for England and Wales - Discovery research on the redesign of multi-mode questions - Part 1 

https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/crimeandjustice/methodologies/transformationofthecrimesurveyforenglandandwalesdiscoveryresearchontheredesignofmultimodequestions  

Crime Survey for England and Wales Transformation - Discovery Part 2: mental models research (8th Aug 2025) 

https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/crimeandjustice/methodologies/crimesurveyforenglandandwalestransformationdiscoverypart2mentalmodelsresearch  

Crime Survey for England and Wales Transformation - Discovery Part 3: Redesign of the screener module (2nd April 2025) 

https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/crimeandjustice/methodologies/crimesurveyforenglandandwalestransformationdiscoverypart3redesignofthescreenermodule  

Discussion Areas for potential bidders engaging in Market Engagement?

-How would you recommend sampling one individual per household for the survey (for victimisation modules)?

-What would be your recommended approach to ensure the survey is inclusive - including for those who may feel unable to take part online?

-Can you recommend approaches for producing statistics using multi-modal data and impact on the continuity of a time series?

-What actions can be taken to maximise response rates?

-Can you suggest the technology required to run the survey and for ONS to receive and access the data?

-Can you recommend the extent of usability testing required?

Can you outline a suggested timeline to set up and deliver this work?