Accounting Services, Financial Year 2001/2002
Contents
F. Respondent Load
F1 Respondent load
On average, how long will a respondent be expected to spend in completing each questionnaire? How has this estimate been derived? Will the time taken by respondents to complete the survey be recorded? (F1)
Note. Mail-based surveys should include a 'time taken to complete questionnaire' question. For telephone interviews this 'time taken' information should be recorded.
A 'time taken to complete questionnaire' question has been included on the survey forms, and this information will be included. During forms testing, most respondents indicated that it would take them less than 2 hours.The average provider load from the 95/96 survey was about 1.7 hours. We are expecting something similar this time.
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F2 Reduction in respondent load
What steps have been taken to reduce the burden on small businesses, eg use of a reduced questionnaire? (F2)
To assist with provider load, the following initiatives have been developed:
- The forms have been tailored to accord with the different types of respondents. In addition, some of these forms will be extended to other forms to cover EAS additional requirements, where applicable.
- Forms have been fully tested with prospective respondents to ensure that provider load is minimised.
- Units that overlap with EAS will be the collection responsibility of SIS. This will reduce the provider load imposed on these industries.
- While we endeavour to collect accurate values for all data items from all respondents, we do allow respondents to use careful estimates if they face difficulties in providing exact amounts. Providers who face a large degree of difficulty in completing the form will be offered personal assistance from trained ABS staff to minimise the stress imposed on the provider. This assistance includes the possibility of an ABS officer completing the form if appropriate summary information, e.g. a profit and loss statement, is made available.
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F3 Confidentiality
What commitments have been made to preserve the confidentiality of respondents? How will these be implemented? (F3)
The confidentiality of information collected by the Australian Bureau of Statistics is protected by the secrecy provisions of the Census and Statistics Act 1905. Rules on minimum number of contributors per output cell, and concentration of particular respondent contribution to the cell, apply.
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