The second area where we’ve had influence recently is in the development of the Office for National Statistics (ONS) consultation document regarding the Approved Researcher status. In a nutshell, the ONS is reviewing the detailed criteria necessary for researchers to access potentially disclosive data, including some of the data which we make available through the UK Data Service Secure Lab.
I have been invited onto the recommendations to rcs data malaysia the National Statistician. My personal feeling is that it is possible for the ONS to enlarge access to these types of data while staying within the law and continuing to protect personal data. Now it may be that my point of view cannot be fully reflected within the recommendations, time shall tell, but I have had the opportunity of providing input from the user perspective and this fore-knowledge has allowed both myself and the Service to consider the ramifications of any changes from the point of view of other data owners, like the ESRC, whose access conditions are very similar to those of the ONS.
It would be highly desirable that researchers have easier hurdles to jump and it’d be even more desirable for the requirements for “fit and properness” to be transferable. So, if these things do come to pass in the future it will be, to some immeasurable level, a consequence of the Service’s involvement.
By the way, the public consultation for this review will open in a few weeks. We’ll be tweeting its publication, and I look forward to a broad range of views from data controllers, data users and those with an interest in privacy concerns.