Overview

Slide 2:Overview The legislative model The data model The security model Developments Current key concerns

Slide 3:The legislative model (1) Mixture of statutes and common law until… Statistics and Registration Services Act 2007 Didn’t abolish existing gateways for research Created a new gateway – ‘Approved Researchers’ Allowed for cross-govt data sharing… …but not for research purposes unless specifically agreed Clarified limits of European data sharing ONS given a statutory duty to support research

Slide 4:The legislative model (2) No theoretical limits on who can have access to enormous range of govt data both within govt and in academia …but not a free-for-all ONS has a duty to protect confidentiality even for Approved Researchers data release has to be consistent with need ? the data model

Slide 5:The data model (1) ‘Spectrum’ of access points balancing value of data ease of use disclosure risk for a given level of confidentiality, maximise data use and convenience no ‘one-size-fits-all’ solution no absolute prohibitions trade-off is made explicit users determine appropriate level of access

Slide 7:The data model (2) Options should cover most cases Can’t be perfect in every case But the jump from one solution to another reflects data utility and patterns of research use Pretty efficient Fairly transparent Users balance their own costs/benefits Economies of scale delivering mass solutions eg UKDA, VML How do we define/describe access points? ? the security model

Slide 8:The security model (VML version)

Slide 10:Access: a summary No theoretical restrictions wide ranging and flexible legal basis

Slide 11:Remote access in the UK: the VML (1) Probably the most important research data resource in the UK after the UK Data Archive (and the internet) Expanding access from other govt depts. Data acquisitions: internal ONS versions of social datasets Other government dept data Administrative data Census 2011 detailed microdata?

Slide 12:Remote access in the UK: the VML (2) Highly theorised Particularly in disclosure control Strong researcher relationship compulsory training gives initial investment in researcher buy-in Next stage: full cost-benefit analysis Planning model in context of new alternatives CBA to include purpose of RDC

Slide 13:Developments in remote access VML clones being set up in academia Possibly elsewhere in govt too No possibility of VML being accessible over internet in near future Likely to develop into a two-tier system VML practices and models adopted for increasing range of data across wider range of operations

Slide 14:Current key concerns IT lack of resource still some basic operational issues unresolved Delays in increasing access points partly money, partly IT, partly culture Demand growth 30%-50% each year 2003-2008 Likely to be higher 2009-10

Slide 15:Current potential concerns Potential in Statistics Act possibility for ONS’ policies to be challenged surprising (unwelcome) demands for information? social data in VML partially a pre-emptive response New data types bringing new rules Fragmentation of RDC practice in UK

Slide 16:Background concern: fear of the new Relative risk still poorly understood Example VML temporarily closed for potential security flaw One data area returned to old non-VML solution: letting external visitors log on using ONS staff usernames VML was re-opened after a week for ONS staff and only three weeks later for external visitors But the flaw could only be exploited by ONS staff… Resistance to virtual solutions in favour of familiar remote access always seen as a limitation despite much better data quality ‘distributed access’ no substitute for ‘distributed data’

Slide 17:Not current key concerns Staff resources Fast training time Supportive researcher base researcher buy-in => very lean processes Methodological issues RDC-specific SDC methods proving robust Legal issues Statistics law so far proving flexible enough to provide reasonable responses to all needs “reasonable”=ONS and researchers happy that balance between access and confidentiality is fair

Slide 18:Summary Clear legislative model and strong theoretical basis policy decisions relatively easy Main difficulty for ONS is managing expansion of demand meeting ONS internal needs (just, for now) long way off meeting external demands

Slide 19:Contact Felix Ritchie felix.ritchie@ons.gsi.gov.uk Microdata Analysis and User Support maus@ons.gsi.gov.uk

Slide 20:VML resources