diff --git a/db/migrate/20211104180156_add_category_id_to_sqm_category.rb b/db/migrate/20211104180156_add_category_id_to_sqm_category.rb
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..3050ff9f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/db/migrate/20211104180156_add_category_id_to_sqm_category.rb
@@ -0,0 +1,8 @@
+class AddCategoryIdToSqmCategory < ActiveRecord::Migration[6.1]
+  def change
+    add_column :sqm_categories, :category_id, :string, default: 'default-category-id', null: false
+
+    # give everything a default value
+    change_column_default :sqm_categories, :category_id, from: 'default-category-id', to: nil
+  end
+end
diff --git a/db/migrate/20211104181819_add_subcategory_id_to_subcategory.rb b/db/migrate/20211104181819_add_subcategory_id_to_subcategory.rb
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..bf8876d4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/db/migrate/20211104181819_add_subcategory_id_to_subcategory.rb
@@ -0,0 +1,7 @@
+class AddSubcategoryIdToSubcategory < ActiveRecord::Migration[6.1]
+  def change
+    add_column :subcategories, :subcategory_id, :string, default: 'default-subcategory-id', null: false
+
+    change_column_default :subcategories, :subcategory_id, from: 'default-subcategory-id', to: nil
+  end
+end
diff --git a/db/schema.rb b/db/schema.rb
index 4daa96b5..587a57a3 100644
--- a/db/schema.rb
+++ b/db/schema.rb
@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@
 #
 # It's strongly recommended that you check this file into your version control system.
 
-ActiveRecord::Schema.define(version: 2021_11_02_130307) do
+ActiveRecord::Schema.define(version: 2021_11_04_181819) do
 
   # These are extensions that must be enabled in order to support this database
   enable_extension "plpgsql"
@@ -221,6 +221,7 @@ ActiveRecord::Schema.define(version: 2021_11_02_130307) do
     t.integer "sort_index"
     t.datetime "created_at", precision: 6, null: false
     t.datetime "updated_at", precision: 6, null: false
+    t.string "category_id", null: false
     t.index ["slug"], name: "index_sqm_categories_on_slug", unique: true
   end
 
@@ -242,6 +243,7 @@ ActiveRecord::Schema.define(version: 2021_11_02_130307) do
     t.text "description"
     t.datetime "created_at", precision: 6, null: false
     t.datetime "updated_at", precision: 6, null: false
+    t.string "subcategory_id", null: false
   end
 
   create_table "survey_item_responses", id: :serial, force: :cascade do |t|
diff --git a/spec/factories.rb b/spec/factories.rb
index 2a673a89..a9d31a37 100644
--- a/spec/factories.rb
+++ b/spec/factories.rb
@@ -18,6 +18,7 @@ FactoryBot.define do
 
   factory :sqm_category do
     name { "A #{rand} category" }
+    category_id { rand.to_s }
     description { "A description of a category" }
     slug { "a-#{rand}-category" }
     sort_index { 1 }
@@ -25,6 +26,7 @@ FactoryBot.define do
 
   factory :subcategory do
     name { "A subcategory" }
+    subcategory_id { rand.to_s }
     description { "A description of a subcategory" }
     sqm_category