'Bringing it all back home ...' - Using RDD telephone methods for large-scale social policy and opinion research in the UK

Despite the extent of telephone ownership in the UK rising to levels compar able with those in the USA the use of telephone methods here, although grow ing, remains at a consistently and significantly lower level, even where th e use of such methods might solve specific research problems. The major rea son for this is the hitherto presumed inability to apply two stage Random D igit Dialling (Mitofsky-Waksberg) sampling methods. The authors review the position in the UK and the deficiencies of telephone sampling methods used there hitherto. They present proposals for a new method of implementing RDD in the UK and thus true probability sampling for telephone methods. In add ition they present data from a number of surveys carried out to test the pr oposed methods, in particular a survey of health related behaviour and beli efs among adults aged 16-74 in England and a number of opinion polls. They also review briefly other polls carried out during the 1997 General Electio n campaign. They review the effectiveness of the proposed method and the po ssible future for telephone surveys in the UK.