The Ministry of Justice is linking together its own administrative records—from courts, prisons, and family proceedings—so researchers can trace individuals’ paths through the entire justice system. Currently, data on criminal, civil, and family cases sits in separate silos. This makes it impossible to see, for example, whether someone who appears in family court later shows up in criminal court, or how different groups of people move between these systems. Without linked data, policymakers cannot answer basic questions about how the justice system actually works for the people who use it. Data First will create a secure, anonymised dataset that accredited researchers inside and outside government can analyse. If successful, it will produce a body of evidence on justice-system users and their interactions across different courts and government services. That evidence could inform policies on sentencing, rehabilitation, child protection, and access to justice—areas where decisions are often made with incomplete information. This is not fundamental science; it is applied infrastructure for evidence-based policy. The project’s value lies in making existing data usable, safely and ethically, to reveal patterns that are currently invisible.
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. Data First is an ambitious data-linking programme led by the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) and funded by ADR UK (Administrative Data Research UK). It aims to harness the potential of the wealth of data already created by MoJ, by linking administrative datasets from across the justice system and beyond, and enabling researchers within government as well as approved academics – to access the data in an ethical and responsible way. By working in partnership with independent and expert academics to facilitate and promote research in the justice space, Data First will create a sustainable body of knowledge on justice system users and their interactions with government and across the family, civil and criminal courts, to provide evidence to underpin the development of government policies and drive real progress in tackling social and justice problems.
Plain English summaries and category classifications on this site are generated by AI and may not perfectly reflect the original research.
Is something wrong? Let us know