The Longitudinal Inter-Departmental Business Register, 2007-2017: Secure Access has been created by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy using extracts of the Inter-Departmental Business Register (IDBR). The IDBR is a comprehensive list of UK businesses used by government for statistical purposes. The IDBR provides the main sampling frame for surveys of businesses carried out by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) and other government departments. It is also an important data source for analyses of business activities. The IDBR covers 2.6 million businesses in all sectors of the UK economy, other than very small businesses (those without employees and with turnover below the tax threshold) and some non-profit making organisations. The two main sources of input are the Value Added Tax (VAT) system from HMRC (Customs) and Pay As You Earn (PAYE) from HMRC (Revenue). Additional input comes from Companies House, Dun and Bradstreet and other business surveys.The Longitudinal IDBR contains an extracted 'employees' dataset and an extracted 'turnover' dataset which can both be used to look at growth patterns. Further information about how the datasets have been created are available in the Documentation.Linking to other business studiesThese data contain IDBR reference numbers. These are anonymous but unique reference numbers assigned to business organisations. Their inclusion allows researchers to combine different business survey sources together. Researchers may consider applying for other business data to assist their research. The Longitudinal Inter-Departmental Business Register, 2007-2017: Secure Access contains an 'employees' dataset and a 'turnover' dataset. The 'employees' dataset includes the following variables:entrer                        IDBR Enterprise Referenceemp_likely_year       Year employees data refers toent_status                 Whether business is active or inactive for that yearemployeesq              Number of employeesextract_year              Year of IDBR extract the emplyees or payejobs figure is froment_emp_qual           Quality flag for the datasic2007                      2007 Standard Industrial Classificationlegalstatus                 Legal Statuspayejobs                    Number of open PAYE records in extract yearworkprop                    Numer of working proprietors in extract yearThe 'turnover' dataset includes the following variables:entref                        IDBR Enterprise Referencesic2007                     2007 Standard Industrial Classificationlegalstatus                Legal status of the enterprise in the extract yearextract_year             Year of the IDBR extract which the turnover figure is fromturnover                    Turnover of the enterprise in £,000ent_status                 Whether the business is active or inactive for that yearent_turn_qual            Quality flagturn_likely_year         The year the turnover data refers to