Helen Miller-Bakewell, OSR’s Head of Development and Impact, reflects on the Administrative Data Research UK (ADR UK) 2025 Conference, and the takeaway messages for her and the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR).
Recently I attended the ADR UK conference in Wales, From records to research: Harnessing administrative data to enhance lives.
It was an impressive event, with over 250 presentations across four themes, which spanned insights from research using linked administrative data; technical and social aspects of data access and linkage; and ethics and governance.
It was hugely stimulating, and, as I tried to order my thoughts on the train home, four key takeaways emerged for me:
1. Linked data are a powerful tool to help evaluate impact and inform positive action
There were so many presentations about research findings from the analysis of linked administrative data that have obvious relevance to current and future government policies. I personally heard presentations on topics as varied as the impact of Scout and Guide attendance on cognitive ability trajectories in childhood and adult health; patterns and predictors in A-level science choices in Wales; and the effects of Daylight Saving Time clock changes on health outcomes in England. But there were a huge number of other presentations, some related to health and education, as well as others relating to crime, economics and the environment.
It was exciting to see the step being made from ‘interesting analysis’ to ‘analysis with tangible impact’. Practical demonstration of the impact that data can have will doubtless remain important to secure future buy-in (and funding!) for the continued use of linked administrative data. As others noted at the conference, the current cross-cutting Government Missions offer researchers a clear opportunity to demonstrate this practical impact.
2. Data are not just numbers
Across the conference, there was widespread recognition that data are not just numbers. Rather, the numbers in data records represent individual people, sometimes at challenging points in their lives. It was encouraging and inspiring to hear about the variety of ways in which those working in the administrative data space are engaging with members of the public and involving them in decisions – at all stages of the research process, and in discussions around data access and governance.
As we become ever more ambitious about what is possible with data, the words of the Rt Hon Mark Drakeford MS, who gave an excellent keynote talk, hit home: “Taking the public with us is not something we can take for granted”. Public engagement on topics relating to data and statistics will become increasingly important.
3. We’ve come so far – but there’s still a long way to go
Those presenting at the conference recognised and celebrated the huge amount that’s been achieved so far in terms of enabling secure administrative data research. But several talks and workshops also highlighted new challenges ahead – such as being able to link data held in different secure data environments for single research projects; using secure data to train AI models; and the extraction and onward use of these trained models from secure research environments.
These ambitions raise new ethical and technical challenges – in some cases highlighting existing challenges that still need to be solved, such as reducing the time it takes to agree even ‘simple’ data access requests and conduct output reviews.
4. We still need to work on how to link data
Among the presentations I went to, few talked about the challenges associated with actually linking data. In Q&A sessions, however, challenges, and limitations in the scope of research or research findings resulting from them, did sometimes come out.
Performing high-quality data linkage can still be very challenging. So, it’s important to keep going with things like the agreement and adoption of data standards and metadata, as well as the development of linkage methodologies. I heard an interesting presentation from the Office for National Statistics on its Reference Data Management Framework, which highlighted for me how much work is still going on to try to make linkage easier and better.
Mark Drakeford delivers an opening address at the ADR UK conference 2025
What does this mean for OSR?
I left the conference interested and enthused, wondering how OSR can best provide support in all these areas. Two key things came to mind:
- The refreshed Code of Practice for Statistics, due for release later this autumn, will include several practices that relate directly to data sharing and linkage. Together these practices aim to make official statistics based on linked data more common, and to make data used in official statistics more suitable and more available for linking by others as well. They touch on process, technical and social factors. Including these practices in the Code will give OSR a firm basis to catalyse data sharing and linkage across the UK statistical system.
- We will continue to work with existing partners, such as with ADR UK and PEDRI, which unites different UK organisations working with data and statistics, to improve how we all work with the public. And we’ll remain open to new partnerships in this space – especially where these have potential to help government data be made more widely available to accredited researchers beyond government.
Alongside these activities, we’ll continue to use our platform to champion greater data linkage, in a secure way, in research and statistics. Because, ultimately, this is an increasingly evidenced way to help data live up to their potential to serve the public good.
We want to hear from you
OSR is always delighted to hear about and champion work that demonstrates or enables effective data sharing, access and or linkage. If you have a case study or would like to discuss our work in this area, please get in touch: regulation@statistics.gov.uk.
Related:
A reason to be optimistic: sharing and linking data on road traffic collisions – February 2025
How government can make more data available for research and statistics in 2025 – January 2025
Data sharing and linkage for the public good: breaking down barriers – September 2024