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Recruitment into the survey commenced in September, with letters inviting households to participate in the survey reaching the first households on Friday 18 th September. Field work started on Monday 21 September, with survey teams starting to visit participant households from that date. The initial target for individuals swabbed per fortnight in Scotland was 15,000 with the aim that this target be reached as quickly as possible, and maintained within ±10% of this figure. The timeframes for achieving this were based on registration data from the survey in England. In practice, these initial predictions on uptake in Scotland were underestimated and participant registration levels were significantly higher than those observed in England. Therefore, in order to not overshoot the target, recruitment was slowed down. As a result, the target date for reaching 15,000 individuals tested per fortnight was moved from the beginning of November to the middle of November.

ONS have advised that recently there have been issues maintaining the number of Study Workers needed to maintain the target, therefore the target has now been moved to the 14 December. At all times, best efforts have been made to achieve this target, but there are many variables at play and it is difficult to predict what will actually happen. Another factor which must be considered, but we cannot predict, is the introduction of lockdowns and how this may affect the behaviour of respondents.

The following table provides the number of unique individuals tested in each fortnightly period, with the target being 15,000. Please be aware that number of unique individuals will contain the same individuals across different time periods and for this reason, it is not appropriate to sum up counts from multiple periods, as this will lead to double counting.

Figures published on 26 November include response rates showing that, between 21 September and 21 November, 93,522 households have been invited to take part in the COVID-19 Infection Survey. Of the households that have been invited to take part, 12,779 households have registered (agreed to participate), reflecting a household acceptance rate of 14%. Within the 12,779 households that have registered, there are 24,815 individuals who are eligible to participate in the study. From the registered households, 10,516 individuals from 5,802 households have provided at least one swab, and 10,001 individuals have agreed to continue to participate in the survey. This indicates that 14,299 individuals from households that registered have not yet been involved in the survey and 515 individuals, from an unknown number of households, participated on a one-off basis only.

Often households that are invited to participate, register their participation and provide their first swab in separate weeks therefore figures for number of households that have agreed to participate and have not been involved in the survey split by week are not available in a meaningful format.

Acceptance rates cannot be regarded as final, as those who are invited are not given a time limit in which to respond. The total number of households invited will contain households to which the invitation was not successfully delivered, and therefore could not respond. Figures can be found on the ONS website: https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthandsocialcare/
conditionsanddiseases/bulletins/coronaviruscovid19infectionsurveypilot/
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The survey is being conducted by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) in collaboration with the University of Oxford on behalf of the UK and Scottish Government. Private organisations provide some of the services associated with this study.

IQVIA is responsible for carrying out the nose and throat swabs, and taking the blood samples. Serco and IQVIA are jointly responsible for arranging appointments for participants and study workers. HH Global, Gov Notify and GovDelivery are the service providers that help study workers get in touch with participants and Sodexo is the service provider responsible for the vouchers sent as a thank you for study participation.

The Scottish Government does not hold information on these contracts as the ONS is carrying out this survey, therefore there are currently no plans to include this information in SPICe. If more information is required, this is a matter for the Office for National Statistics as the information requested is not held centrally.

This is a matter for the Office for National Statistics who is conducting the survey on behalf of the Scottish Government. The information requested is not held centrally.

Figures published on 26 November show that the total number of eligible individuals in households that have registered for the study for each country in the UK up to 21 November, which ONS recommend can be used as the study sample size. It is important to note that each country joined the study at different times, and as Scotland was the last country to join the study, the Scottish sample size has had the least time to expand.

The COVID-19 Infection Survey began as a pilot survey in England with fieldwork commencing on 26 April, initially inviting 20,276 English households to participate. The first results for England were published on 14 May. Fieldwork began in Wales on 29 June and the first results for Wales were published on 7 August. Fieldwork in Northern Ireland commenced on 26th July, and the first results including Northern Ireland were published on 25 September.

The Scottish Government announced on 17 August that, as part of its Testing Strategy, Scotland would be opting into the now UK-wide COVID Infection Survey with the aim of testing 15,000 individuals per two week period. Fieldwork commenced in Scotland on 21 September and has been ongoing since then. The first results for Scotland were published on 23 October on the Scottish Government website and on the ONS website alongside results for England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

The Department of Health and Social Care announced on 19 th August that the Office for National Statistics COVID-19 Infection Survey would be expanded to 400,000 people in England.

Decisions behind the timing of Scotland opting into the survey were affected by whether or not the survey would be expanded in England, increasing the scale and analytical potential of the survey in each of the four nations of the UK.

The Department of Health and Social Care fund the survey in England, Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland. In-kind support is provided by the Scottish Government.

The cost of the survey is a matter for the Department of Health and Social Care. The information requested is not held centrally.

Recruitment into the survey commenced in September, with letters inviting households to participate in the survey reaching the first Scottish households on 18 September. Field work started on 21 September, with survey teams starting to visit participant households from that date. The initial target for individuals swabbed per fortnight in Scotland was 15,000 with the aim of reaching this target as quickly as possible, and maintained within ±10% of this target. The timeframes for achieving this were based on registration data from the survey in England. In practice, these initial predictions on uptake in Scotland were underestimated and participant registration levels were significantly higher than those observed in England. Therefore, in order to not overshoot the target, recruitment was slowed down.

The increased number of participants recruited earlier in the study allowed more samples to be processed by an earlier date than expected, thus increasing the amount of data available and allowing analysis to be carried out sooner than anticipated for Scotland. It was originally planned that the first results for Scotland would be published on 6 November, however this was brought forward by two weeks to 23 October.

The survey is being conducted by the Office for National Statistics in collaboration with the University of Oxford on behalf of the UK and Scottish Government. Scottish Government officials play a key part in supporting the survey by providing oversight and operational support. Officials sit on the steering group, support day to day operations, provide analytical oversight and sign off on decisions affecting Scotland.