Our data services
Data can be accessed by accredited researchers for approved research projects that will benefit the public. ADR UK partners have rigorous safeguards in place to ensure data cannot be accessed by any unauthorised person, or for any reason other than research for the public good.
There are several different routes through which researchers can securely access administrative data. The route researchers take depends on what data they want to access, where in the UK they want to access it from, and what existing accreditation they or their institution have for accessing data.
Data can be accessed:
- via one of the saferooms managed by our trusted research environments based in each of the four UK nations
- via a secure connection to our trusted research environments from home or work, through assured organisational connectivity
- via one of the SafePods which provide secure access to data. These are based at academic institutions around the UK.
ADR UK Data Catalogue
Our new data catalogue makes it easier for researchers and analysts to discover the growing collection of administrative datasets available for public good research across the ADR UK partnership – and which routes they can be accessed through. Development of the platform was a cross-partnership endeavour, led by the Office for National Statistics.
Users can filter the metadata in the catalogue by ADR UK partner, theme, or spatial coverage. For the first time, at the click of a button, it is possible to see the administrative data available in each UK nation and whether, for example, there is a comparable dataset on a specific theme in another nation.
The data catalogue supports ADR UK’s strategy to make administrative data more discoverable and drive up the use of datasets for public good research.
This catalogue has been developed in line with the FAIR principles:
- Findable: Data should be easy to find
- Accessible: It should be clear how to access the data
- Interoperable: Data should share agreed standards and language
- Reusable: The (meta)data should be well described so that it can be used again in other settings.