Office for National Statistics
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) plays a crucial role in sourcing, linking and curating public sector data for ADR UK, ensuring that all data is accessed by researchers in a safe and secure form with minimal risk to data holders or the public.
ONS’s strong existing relationships with government departments and successful established service is important in helping to establish ADR UK as a trusted partner for administrative data research.
To support the ADR UK partnership, ONS has committed to expanding and improving its established Secure Research Service (SRS) – the organisation’s facility for providing secure access to de-identified public sector data for research – and significantly increasing the range of administrative data available. ONS will focus on increased data reuse to deliver efficiencies to government departments (who only need to provide data once), and maximise the use of this data by identifying shared priorities and objectives with government departments.
Within ONS there are designated teams working together to meet the needs of government and researchers: the Strategic Data Curation team; the Data Acquisition team; and the Data Integration team. The role of Strategic Data Curation is to identify potential research and administrative data sources by exploring gaps in existing research and working to establish the needs of both government and researchers. The Data Acquisition team liaise with data owners to allow datasets from multiple departments and bodies to be linked together. Finally, the Data Integration team are the experts in linkage and management of data, producing linked datasets or outputs of administrative datasets which are then de-identified and made available to researchers through the SRS.
It is via the SRS – which is an accredited processor under the Digital Economy Act (DEA) – that ONS provides access for accredited researchers working on defined and accredited research projects which serve the public good. The SRS provides a safe setting as part of the Five Safes framework used to protect data confidentiality. ONS procedures mean that analysis results don’t disclose sensitive information, and the SRS operates within a legal framework with penalties for breaking these rules. More information about becoming an accredited researcher can be found on the ONS website.
Most datasets are available to access through remote access to the SRS. In some instances, the data can only be accessed from a SafePod, an approved Safe Setting or a secure connection to one. Safe Settings are located at ONS offices in London, Newport (Gwent) and Titchfield, as well as at locations in Belfast and Glasgow. The Data Catalogue lists all available datasets and any associated access restrictions.
ONS is funded directly by the Economic & Social Research Council (ESRC) with a dedicated portion of the total investment in ADR UK, initially from July 2018 to March 2022. To find out more about how ADR UK is funded, see About Us. Further details of the grant awarded to ONS can be seen on UK Research & Innovation (UKRI)’s Gateway to Research platform.
ONS Projects
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ADR UK Research Fellows: Ministry of Justice and the Department for Education linked datasets fellowships
16 December 2021
ADR UK is funding five 12-month Research Fellowships to conduct analysis using the Ministry of Justice (MoJ)-Department for Education (DfE) linked dataset to understand links between childhood characteristics, educational outcomes, and offending.
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ADR UK Research Fellows: Methodological developments within administrative data research
9 August 2021
ADR UK is funding three research teams as part of the Economic & Social Research Council (ESRC) Research Methods Development Grants.
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ADR UK Research Fellows: The first users of the Data First magistrates’ and Crown Court datasets
16 June 2021
ADR UK is funding four Research Fellows for seven to 12 months to conduct analysis using the Data First magistrates’ or Crown Court linked datasets, or a linking dataset enabling analysis of relationships between the two. Both datasets contain case and defendant level data on criminal court use between 2011 and 2020.
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ONS News
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Exploring educational attainment patterns and criminal offending
10 May 2022
In this blog, ADR UK Research Fellow Alice Wickersham describes her work on the Ministry of Justice and Department for Education linked dataset, exploring the relationships between changes in educational attainment and criminal offending.
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ADR UK’s four national partnerships publish strategies for 2022-2026
10 May 2022
ADR UK has published strategies from each of the four Administrative Data Research partnerships of the UK. These plans will support our mission to transform the way researchers access the UK’s wealth of public sector data.
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ADR UK responds to ICO consultation on draft anonymisation, pseudonymisation and privacy enhancing technologies guidance
9 May 2022
The ADR UK partnership has responded to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO)’s call for views on its draft guidance on anonymisation, pseudonymisation and privacy enhancing technologies.
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Find out more
You can find out more about the datasets available via the SRS on the ONS website. If you are interested in working with ADR UK on a research project using this data to produce policy impact, please get in touch.