Farm business survey - technical notes and guidance
Technical information, notes and guidance on the farm business survey.
Applies to England
The Farm Business Survey (FBS) provides information on the financial position and physical and economic performance of farm businesses in England. The main uses of the FBS are to inform government policy making, for farm business advice, for benchmarking business performance and for research.
Data collection, methodology and confidentiality
The FBS collects detailed information from a sample of farms in England. Information about the survey, definitions and recording forms and instructions can be found below under FBS documents. Within the FBS, farms are classified into particular farm types and size groups to aid analysis based on Standard Outputs and Standard Labour requirements respectively. Every 4-5 years the Standard Output coefficients get updated to reflect the most up to date data in farming. The last update was applied to the 2017/18 FBS data. As the updating of coefficients cause a slight break in the time series, the FBS data is published on both the old and the new coefficients, to quantify the impact of the change. A description of the methods used to classify farms and an assessment of the impact of the 2014 change can be found here “Effects of standard output changes on Farm Business Survey”.
Farm incomes are broken down by four cost centres; agriculture, diversification, agri-environment activities and direct payments. Variable and fixed costs are allocated to each of these cost centres. The methodology for allocating fixed costs has previously been subject to a number of reviews with the most recent being documented below under FBS documents (see Methodology for the Allocation and Apportionment of Fixed Costs by Cost Centre).
In some years additional ‘modules’ have been included in the FBS to examine particular facets of the farm business in more detail. Some of the more popular modules such as those looking at enterprise margins and rents have now been moved into the core return and will be undertaken each year. A list and brief description of the additional modules that have been undertaken can be found below under FBS Modules .
The data collected from the FBS relates to individual farms and is treated in the strictest confidence. Strict data confidentiality processes are in place to ensure the identities of farms and growers that participate in the survey are not divulged and any grouped data that is published adheres to disclosure rules to ensure individual farms cannot be identified. Our policy statement on confidentiality can be found below under FBS documents.
Organisation, governance and legal base
The FBS is commissioned by Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) with Promar International contracted to undertake the recruitment of farms and growers into the panel of farms that participate in the survey with onward collection and submission of the data to Defra.
There are two committees in place to govern the operation of the FBS. The first is the FBS Project Board which plans and monitors the programme of work for the FBS. It also acts as a contract managing body between Defra and its contracted partner.
The second is the FBS Technical Group which advises on the methodology and technical aspects of the UK Farm Business Surveys, including co-ordination of outputs for the United Kingdom as a whole.
Participation in the FBS is voluntary and Defra relies on public task as its legal basis for processing the data. Some of the data is also used to fulfil Defra’s legal obligations under the Agricultural Holdings (Units of Production) (England) (No. 2) Order 2021/1440.
Access to FBS data for research
Anonymised farm level FBS data can be made available to bona fide researchers under strict conditions. Requests for access should be submitted to the Economic and Social Data Service, UK Data Archive, University of Essex. This should be the first point of contact for researchers wishing to gain access the anonymised FBS data.
Whilst the anonymised data can be obtained, researchers cannot gain access to FBS participants or their personal information (e.g. for further interviews or studies) because FBS co-operators agree to take part on the basis that their identity will always remain confidential.
FBS documents
The following documents show what information is collected on the FBS and how it is recorded.
Technical notes
Recording forms
For a copy of the FBS recording form and/or code booklet (FAS 24 and 23) for any year after 2019/20 please send an email to fbs.queries@defra.gov.uk. [The latest available year is 2022/23]
Instructions for data collection
For a copy of the ‘Instructions for collecting the data and completing the farm return’ booklet for any year after 2019/20 please send an email to fbs.queries@defra.gov.uk. [The latest available year is 2022/23]
Defra statistics: farm business survey
Email fbs.queries@defra.gov.uk
You can also contact us via Twitter: https://twitter.com/DefraStats
Updates to this page
Last updated 26 April 2023 + show all updates
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Update needed to the text.
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Update to the Farm Classification in the United Kingdom document.
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Updated description.
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Altered the contacts for access to FBS data for research.
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Edited to include new document FBS Data Confidentiality and Disclosure Policy & Undertaking 2022.23.
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Correction - Farm Business Survey Privacy Notice 2021/22 incorrectly removed. Notice has now been added back to page.
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Added an updated Farm Business Survey Privacy Notice document.
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Added details on the 2020/21 FBS recording form and code booklet (FAS 24 and 23) plus 2020/21 Instructions for collecting the data and completing the farm return.
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Added "Farm Business Survey 2019-2020 Recording form and code booklet (FAS 24 and 23)", and "Farm Business Survey 2019-2020 Instructions for collecting the data and completing the farm return" documents.
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Added Farm Business Survey Privacy/data protection notice.
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Updated e-mail address for fbs team under “Access to FBS data for research” section. Also fixed broken link to data-archive website.
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Added updated confidentiality policy document.
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Added instructions for completing the farm return for 2018/19.
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Added farm business survey 2018/19 recording form
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Added FBS weighting methodology document.
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Added 2017/18 FBS recording form and code booklet (FAS 24 and 23).
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Added 2016/17 FBS Instructions.
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Added 2016/17 FBS recording form and code booklet (FAS 24 and 23).
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Added 2015/16 FBS recording form and code booklet (FAS 24 and 23) and 2015/16 Instructions for collecting the data and completing the farm return.
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Updated body text of this page and added 4 documents: definitions used, modules, statistical Information and data confidentiality.
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Added 2014/15 FBS recording form and code booklet (FAS 24 and 23) and 2014/15 Instructions for collecting the data and completing the farm return.
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Methodology for the allocation and apportionment of fixed costs by cost centre document updated.
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Amended text on data collection, methodology and confidentiality plus new methodology document added.
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EU typology handbook now attached
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Data collection, methodology and confidentiality text updated and two new documents attached.
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Updated with 2013 to 2014 form and 2013 to 2014 instructions, and updated 2012 to 2013 form.
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Added FBS recording booklets and instructions.
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First published.