Administrative Data Service

Access to administrative data for research purposes is a positive public good. The ability to use these records - collected in the course of normal business by governmental and other bodies - and to link them with each other and with other information about people and organisations, can greatly enhance our ability to do the research modern society needs. With these linked data we can evaluate public policies on everything from tax structures, educational reforms and health service innovations to changes in benefits regimes and the effect on crime and beyond. It can help us to model economic progress, assess the impact of changing legal and political circumstances and really understand societal change over time and place. These data are a rich and greatly under-utilised research resource. They are also governed by a myriad different departmental and national policies and legislative frameworks and gateways which make them extremely difficult to access, link and use in a consistently safe, secure and regulated fashion. Because these data are information about individual people and businesses collected not for research purposes per se, there are rightly many concerns about how they are used, in what settings, by whom and why. The purpose of the Administrative Data Research Network (ADRN) is to facilitate access to this rich research resource while preserving maximal data security and individual confidentiality. The Administrative Data Service (ADS) is a crucial part of ADRN; serving as the public face of the network and the bond which bridges the four national Administrative Data Research Centres (ADRCs). It provides: - the first port of call for researchers interested in using administrative data - substantial enhanced documentation and information about administrative data resources - what they contain, how they are structured, how and why they were collected, and how these have changed through time - extensive guidance on many issues around the use of administrative data for research, including briefs on the most up-to-date legal developments - the one-stop-shop where users can request access to administrative data and for data linkages for proposed research. The service collects all the required information about the researchers and their research, and negotiates with data owners for research access and with trusted third parties for data linkage. It allows researchers to track the status of their requests, and works with a network of experts to ensure that only feasible projects are put forward as data access and/or linkage requests to data owners. The service also is responsible for building consensus around standard procedures and practices among national statistical agencies, other data owners and ADRCs in regard to criteria for evaluating research and accrediting researchers, and requirements for secure facilities in which to access data. This consensus-building will have a great and long-ranging impact on all research which uses data. It sits squarely within the Open Government agenda but is also informed by and mindful of the increasing requirements for data protection. Getting the key stakeholders literally to sit around a table and discuss these issues and deliver proposed solutions may well be the service activity with the longest lasting impact. Finally, the service engages the public to ensure that the discourse around data protection and open government is informed by positive impact stories reflecting the public good that comes from enabling and easing research access to administrative data.