Linking to administrative data
- Why do you want to link administrative data to my survey answers?
- Who will get access to the information once it is linked?
- Will people who use the data know that it’s me?
- Will government departments and agencies know that it’s me?
- How is the data transferred?
- Does what you are doing have ethical approval?
- Further information about linking to education data
Why do you want to link administrative data to my survey answers?
Government departments and agencies collect information to help them provide a service to us all. We would like to link the information they have about your use of some of these services to your survey answers. If you let us do this, it will make the information you have given us even more useful. The information held in administrative records is more detailed than we can go into during the Understanding Society interview. This extra level of detail can be used by researchers looking at how our health, education or receipt of social security benefits affects – and is affected by – other parts of our lives.
Who will get access to the information once it is linked?
When we receive the information it is anonymised, so that your personal details such as name, address or date of birth are removed. It is then deposited with the UK Data Archive. Social researchers can register with the Data Archive to use the Understanding Society data. This data is free to genuine social researchers, not to commercial companies. For more detailed information, such as that from the linked administrative data, researchers first have to apply for a Special Licence. This gives extra protection to who can use the data, and for what purpose. It also obliges the researcher to store the data securely and to delete it once it has been used for the stated purpose.
Will people who use the data know that it’s me?
No. None of the information we deposit with the Data Archive contains personal details. There are no names, addresses, phone numbers, email addresses or dates of birth on the data.
Will government departments and agencies know that it’s me?
No. We will have to give the government agencies the personal information they require to select the correct administrative record. However, they are then legally obliged to delete the personal information we send them, before they return the administrative records to us. We make the link between the administrative records and survey answers at the University, so the government agencies cannot link your survey answers to the records they may hold on you.
How is the data transferred?
We use a secure on-line portal which is password-protected to transfer the information between us and the government agencies. Only those are authorised to use the portal have a password, and the password and log-in is unique to each user. The data are encrypted before being uploaded onto the portal. We are compliant with the standards of the ISO 27001 data security protocols and procedures. We will never send data through the post, by courier or taxi or by unsecured email.
Does what you are doing have ethical approval?
The Understanding Society study has been approved by the University of Essex Ethics Committee. The request to link to health records have been approved by NHS medical research ethics committees; Oxfordshire A REC/ Ref: 08/H0604/124 and Southampton REC/Ref: 11/SC/0274. These ethics committees examine how the whole survey process to see where the request to link to administrative records fits into the rest of the study. They also need to approve the wording of the questions, the content of the information leaflet and the consent form, as well as how the data are dealt with once it has been collected.
Further information about linking to education data
For more information see the National Pupil Database (NPD) Data Linking FAQs (.pdf)