Recipient organisationScottish GovernmentSource-published name: Scottish Government
Funding£2.9M
PeriodSept 2018 — Mar 2021
In plain English
AI plain-English summary
Scotland’s government is linking together its own administrative records—from health visits to welfare payments—so accredited researchers can analyse them as a single, joined-up dataset. This matters because public sector data is currently scattered across dozens of separate government departments, each holding its own records on benefits, healthcare, education, housing, and policing. Without secure linkage, policymakers cannot spot patterns that cut across these silos—for example, how a change in housing policy affects hospital admissions, or whether a new employability programme reduces benefit claims. The project addresses this gap by building the legal, technical, and governance infrastructure needed to connect data safely. If successful, the work will allow Scottish ministers and civil servants to test policy ideas using real-world evidence rather than assumptions. A social security reform could be evaluated by tracking its effects on health, employment, and child poverty simultaneously. The same linked data infrastructure could also help researchers study lifelong wellbeing, fair work, and community safety—issues that quietly shape how public money is spent and how services reach citizens.
View original technical description
ADR UK (Administrative Data Research UK) is a partnership transforming the way researchers access the UK’s wealth of public sector data, to enable better informed policy decisions that improve people’s lives. By linking together data held by different parts of government, and by facilitating safe and secure access for accredited researchers to these newly joined-up data sets, ADR UK is creating a sustainable body of knowledge about how our society and economy function – tailored to give decision makers the answers they need to solve important policy questions. ADR UK is made up of three national partnerships (ADR Scotland, ADR Wales, and ADR NI) and the Office for National Statistics (ONS), which ensures data provided by UK government bodies is accessed by researchers in a safe and secure form with minimal risk to data holders or the public. The partnership is coordinated by a UK-wide Strategic Hub, which also promotes the benefits of administrative data research to the public and the wider research community, engages with UK government to secure access to data, and manages a dedicated research budget. ADR UK is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), part of UK Research and Innovation. To find out more, visit adruk.org or follow @ADR_UK on Twitter. Scottish Government receives funding as part of ADR Scotland (Administrative Data Research Scotland), a partnership combining specialists in the Scottish Government’s Data Sharing and Linkage Unit with the expertise of academic researchers at the Scottish Centre for Administrative Data Research. Together they are transforming how public sector data in Scotland is curated, accessed and explored, so it can deliver its full potential for policymakers and for the public. ADR Scotland is linking administrative data sets and conducting research on a suite of critical issues in Scotland, from health and social care to lifelong wellbeing, and from poverty and fair work to building safer communities. The Scottish Government team brings proven experience in managing data-sharing and linkage projects, access to and understanding of policymakers in government, expertise in information governance and the application of the Digital Economy Act. It is committed to taking forward a programme of work to develop a new infrastructure to support administrative data research.
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