Share your feedback to support the development of Office for National Statistics researcher services

Are you a user of the Office for National Statistics (ONS) Secure Research Service (SRS) or the Integrated Data Service (IDS)? Complete the SRS and IDS annual user experience survey by 16 April. Here, Marie John from the ONS Analytical Insights team explains how your feedback will inform the future development of services.

The ONS provides secure access to data through the SRS and the IDS. This enables accredited researchers to conduct research that delivers a public good.

To help us develop the service, it's crucial to get feedback from existing and potential users. Our SRS and IDS annual user experience survey 2024 is now live. If you use the SRS or the IDS, please complete this short survey to provide your feedback on the services. The survey is anonymous and closes on Tuesday 16 April.

The insights you share will provide ONS with invaluable insights which can be fed into design and build processes for the IDS. The more responses we receive, the more user voices will be heard to support the end-user experience.

The ONS uses the results of its annual user experience surveys to measure trends in service satisfaction and gain insights into what’s working well, and what’s not. The survey also allows us to understand data requirements from our users, helping to inform the acquisition of new data to support more varied research.

Last year, we were delighted to learn that 85% of you found our SRS support teams helpful during the process of applying for Accredited Researcher status, up from the previous year’s 65% satisfaction level. Satisfaction with the quality and range of data owned and managed by SRS also scored highly (81% and 79% respectively). You also told us that you want:

• more linked health data
• more survey data linked to tax and benefits data further linkages to Longitudinal Education Outcomes (LEO) data
• additional years of datasets already in our collection. 

Though the survey last year was focused on the SRS, the results of the survey have been used in developing and improving the IDS. Much data of interest to SRS users to be made available in the IDS will be indexed by default, meaning it can be securely and ethically linked to other anonymised administrative datsests in the future. Read more about our linkage framework, the Reference Data Management Framework.

This year, the survey gives analysts a unique opportunity to feedback on their experiences using the IDS as well as SRS.

Read more about plans for the transition from the SRS to the IDS.

As ONS looks to develop the future of data access, your feedback is valued now more than ever. Thank you for your support.