§ Angus RobertsonTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many times per annum the Continuous Attitudes Survey is distributed among(a) Royal Navy, (b) Army and (c) RAF personnel; how long assessment of the answers took on average for each round in each of the last four years; what the participation rate was in each of the last four years (i) in total numbers and (ii) as a percentage of distributed surveys each year for each of the three branches; and if he will make a statement. [160120]
§ Mr. CaplinThe Continuous Attitude Surveys (CAS) are run differently in the three Services.
Royal Navy
The RN CAS was distributed four times in the year 2000, three times in 2001 and twice in 2002 and 2003. The average time taken to process answers and conduct initial analysis of raw data is three months.
Issues Number of questionnaires distributed Number of responses received Response rate (%) 2000 January, April, July November 8,022 3,417 42.5 2001 March, July, December 6,000 2,713 45.2 2002 June, September 4,000 1,898 47.4 2003 January, September 5,027 2,321 46.1 Army
The Army CAS is distributed bi-annually. It takes approximately seven-eight months to collate the questionnaires, and complete the analysis.
The timing of survey distributions over the last four years has not been standardised. The following table shows response-rate figures by each survey distributed over the last four years.
Survey number Number of responses received Response rate (%) SP1 2,634 57 SP2 2,110 53 SP3 2,037 51 SP4 1,753 44 SP5 2,324 48 RAF
The RAF CAS is issued four times per year, on the first working day of each February, May, August and November. A database of responses is prepared within three to four months of the survey's distribution. Analyses can be carried out at any time once the database is available. Response-rate statistics are set out in the following.
Issues Number of questionnaires distributed Number of responses received Response rate (%) 2000 February, May, August, November 8,000 4,691 58.6 2001 February, May, August, November 8,000 4,678 58.5 2002 February, May, August, November 8,000 4,528 56.6 2003 February, May, August1 6,000 3,090 51.5 1 November data not yet available.