Celebrating 21 years of the Secure Research Service (SRS)

Bill SouthLouise CortiBill South and Louise Corti, based at the Office for National Statistics (ONS), reflect on some of the highlights from the Secure Research Service (SRS) accomplished over the past 21 years.

 

 

Where did the SRS begin?

In January 2004, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) launched the Virtual Microdata Laboratory (VML) to meet growing demand from external users for access to unpublished ONS business survey microdata for research purposes.

The VML was a set of standalone computers that were managed by a team of four, with researchers having to book sessions and travel to a secure room to access the data.

In November 2017 the VML was renamed as the Secure Research Service (SRS), and is now the UK’s largest Trusted Research Environment (TRE), run by the Office of National Statistics (ONS).

The SRS is accredited by the UK Statistics Authority as a data processor for the provision of data under the Digital Economy Act (DEA). It operates under the Five Safes Framework (safe people, projects, data, settings and outputs).

The SRS hosts de-identified unpublished data. De-identifying data means removing any personal information that would allow individuals to be directly identified.

For example, name, address or date of birth. Colleagues across the ONS work hard to enable access to unique datasets through our secure services. Some are also made available through other TREs – such as the UK Data Service – where data owners have granted permission.  With these data, novel projects addressing research and policy questions for the public good are made possible.

The SRS has grown steadily over the years to become a cloud-based platform that:

  • holds over 140 datasets, including microdata from almost all ONS surveys
  • has approximately 1,900 researchers working on 800 live projects, of which over 400 use ONS data
  • has over 150 organisations accessing the data remotely

Research undertaken in the SRS generates considerable additional value from the investment made to collect and process the data and publish aggregate statistics.

Administrative Data Research UK (ADR UK)

Since 2018 ONS has received significant funding from the ADR UK programme, which has enabled the SRS to:

  • rapidly expand its data offer to hold important administrative and linked datasets from other government departments, including Department for Education and Ministry of Justice
  • scale up the number of users and projects accessing the data
  • improve the way the service runs, for example through the creation of a dedicated SRS Metadata Catalogue.

The ADR UK investment contributes to the running of the SRS and work to acquire, engineer and link datasets that are deposited in the SRS.

Who are our users and what are they working on?

Researchers from hundreds of organisations across the UK use the SRS.

Academics make up around 55% of our user base, with government (25%) and private/third sector (20%) making up the rest.

The top research theme is education, supported by the availability of new linked datasets, like Longitudinal Education Outcomes (LEO) and Education and Child Health Insights from Linked Data (ECHILD).

Justice focused datasets are also presenting great new opportunities for looking at outcomes, for example using the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) cross-justice system linked data.

In 2024, over 250 outputs relating to projects were published, including journal articles, reports and featured news items.

The wide variety of research conducted in the SRS has directly influenced policy and informed the public debate. You can read examples on the impact of the SRS on the ADR UK website.

How does the SRS relate to the Integrated Data Service (IDS)?

ONS’s Integrated Data Programme has developed the IDS, a new DEA-accredited Trusted Research Environment, which is currently running in parallel with the SRS.

The IDS makes greater use of indexable data from across government (see the IDS data catalogue), presenting researchers with the flexibility to link different data sources themselves.

It also offers more scalable computational power than the SRS for projects that require heavy processing power.

A recent blog post by Julian McCrae, Deputy Director for Strategy for the Integrated Data Service, showcases some innovative analytic projects that are feeding into the Government’s missions and helps explain some of the exciting developments for the future.

If you’d like to hear more about research activity or outcomes from the SRS or IDS, and uses of specific datasets, please get in touch at IDS.Impact@ons.gov.uk.


About the authors

Bill South leads the Division responsible for running the Secure Research Service (SRS) at the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

His teams enable the researcher journey from processing project applications to disclosure reviewing analytical outputs from the secure environment. The teams work closely with ADR UK partners to coordinate the delivery and research use of new datasets from ONS and across government. Bill has worked for ONS since 2003 in a variety of roles.

 

Louise Corti is head of user experience and analytical impact for the Integrated Data Service (IDS) operations team at the Office for National Statistics.

Her teams monitor and report user experience, needs and outcomes and communicate impactful outputs from analysis undertaken in the SRS and IDS. Prior to that she spent over two decade as service director for the UK Data Service in charge of data and user operations.

 

 


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