Office for National Statistics (ONS)
2025 marks the 21st anniversary of the ONS Secure Research Service (SRS), reaffirming our continued commitment to providing secure access to de-identified record-level data for research in the public good.
This year also marks seven years of collaboration, funding and partnership with ADR UK, which has enabled the SRS to expand its data offer with administrative and linked datasets from other government departments, including the Department for Education and Ministry of Justice.
Secure Research Service usage grows
Usage of the SRS continues to grow. There are now over 6,000 accredited researchers, with approximately 1,900 of them actively working on about 800 live research projects at any given time. Currently, 142 datasets are available for accredited researchers to apply to access through the newly-launched Project Accreditation Service for SRS (PASS).
Among these users are ADR UK fellows and PhD students. ONS has further supported these groups of researchers through the provision of specialist advice at ADR UK workshops, topic webinars, and cohort meetings throughout the year.
New datasets made available for research
This year, a range of new datasets were made available to all SRS accredited researchers. These include the second Longitudinal Study of Young People in England and Civil Society Organisations UK. Work is also underway to make the Department for Work and Pension’s Registration and Populations Interactions Database dataset available.
Existing datasets have been refreshed. For example, the Department for Education Data Access and Engagement programme has provided several refreshes (update of years) to datasets such as the Childcare and Early Years Survey of Parents and the Further Education Workforce Data Collection.
The ONS SRS continues to play a pivotal role in enabling secure access to data for research in the public good. It has been fantastic to see ever-increasing numbers of projects using the well-established and more recently added ADR UK flagship datasets. There are now over 70 projects in the SRS that are accessing the Longitudinal Education Outcomes dataset and over 15 projects accessing the Education and Child Health Insights from Linked Data dataset.
Replacing the Research Accreditation Service
Since 2019, the Research Accreditation Service (RAS) has been used by the ONS to manage the Digital Economy Act (DEA) 2017 accreditation of research projects seeking to use the ONS SRS. RAS was also used by researchers wanting to access any DEA-accredited trusted research environments.
ONS has developed a new service to meet the evolving needs of users following the external supplier contract ending in spring 2025.
The Project Accreditation Service for the SRS (PASS) is an enhancement to the existing SRS Metadata Catalogue. It allows users to browse for data, select datasets using a ‘shopping basket’, and then seamlessly apply for access using an online application form. Users can request changes to their projects in PASS, while internal teams can generate relevant management information.
Initial feedback has been positive and suggests that PASS will improve the time taken to approve projects, and therefore speed up the generation of impactful analysis and findings for ADR UK and wider research projects.
The People and Projects Service (PPS) has been developed for users who need to gain accreditation as researchers.
Celebrating great research: ONS Research Excellence Awards 2024 and Research Excellence Series
In 2024, the ONS relaunched the Research Excellence Awards. These awards recognise and celebrate outstanding research using secure data from ONS trusted research environments.
The awards in 2024 highlighted best practices in methodology, data linking, and public good achieved through statistical analysis.
Six were presented:
- Impact of Analysis
- Impact of Analysis: Collaboration with Government
- ADR UK Research Excellence
- Secure Data Creation
- Organisational Excellence
- People’s Choice Award.
More details about the awards and winners’ work are available on the ONS website.
In addition to the awards, the ONS continues to host the Research Excellence Series. This collection of virtual talks further showcases and celebrates exceptional statistical analyses and research using secure administrative data. The talks have covered a range of diverse themes, such as public health, education, criminal justice, social mobility, and more.
In 2025, these talks have been delivered by winners of the 2024 ONS Research Excellence Awards to further cascade their work. These events have attracted over 1,000 live attendees from across the research community, with many more engaging via our YouTube channels.
Building research capability and community
The ONS hosted its annual in-person Research Capability event in November 2024: Building Research Capability and Community. The event brought together 120 participants from across the research community, including researchers, data owners, policymakers, and government representatives, all focused on strengthening collaboration and capability in the use of secure data for public good.
The event opened with a keynote speech by Martin O’Reilly, Director of Research Engineering at The Alan Turing Institute. Martin spoke on building effective research communities, setting the tone for a day of knowledge sharing and engagement. A dynamic panel discussion followed, featuring experts from academia, government, and data science encouraging lively discussion and audience participation.
Attendees also participated in two rounds of interactive workshops, choosing from a range of sessions:
- DARE UK (Data and Analytics Research Environments UK): Cross-domain sensitive data research
- ONS Integrated Data Service Analytical Insights and Impact team: Harnessing analytical capability
- ADR UK: Developing the administrative data research community
- UK Trusted Research Environment Community: Using data in a trusted research environment
- Cabinet Office and HM Treasury: Randomised Control Trials and evaluation basics
- The Turing Way: Scientific research community management.
