Other legislations

Part 5 of the UK Digital Economy Act 2017 (DEA) includes important new legal powers to provide the UK Statistics Authority with better access to data, to support the production of Official and National Statistics, as well as statistical research.

As far as research use of data is concerned, Chapter 5 of Part 5 of the Digital Economy Act (DEA) facilitates the linking and sharing of de-identified public sector data to support valuable new research insights about UK society and the economy.

The DEA is key legislation in making government more administrative data available for research that is approved to be undertaken for the public good.

The UK Statistics Authority is the statutory accrediting body responsible for the accreditation of processors, researchers and their projects. The Research framework in the DEA is underpinned by the Research Code of Practice and accreditation criteria.

A Research Accreditation Panel (RAP) oversees the independent accreditation of processors, researchers and research projects.

Before data can be shared for research purposes, it must be processed by an Accredited Processor, so that the data can be ‘de-identified’. When the data has been de-identified it can be made available to an Accredited Researcher in a secure environment.

At this stage, the processor must ensure that any data (or any analysis based on the data) retained by the researcher, or published, are ‘disclosure controlled’ to minimise the risk of data subjects being re-identified or other misuses of the data. Under the Act, disclosure of ‘personal information’ outside of the legal gateways is a criminal offence.

The UK Data Archive is an Accredited Processor under the DEA and is able to provide standardised access to a large range of de-identified government data assets, provided by the Office for National Statistics (ONS). See how our UK Data Service Secure Lab works.

Freedom of Information and Environmental Information legislation gives people the right to request access to recorded information held by public sector organisations. This includes requests for research data from universities and publicly funded research organisations.

Freedom of Information

The Freedom of Information Act 2000 was established to increase transparency in the public sector. It gives people the right to request access to recorded information held by public sector organisations, or be informed about whether information is held. Research data can be requested under the Freedom of Information Act, but copyright to such data stays with the original researcher.

There are exceptions to the Act, such as:

• Personal data cannot be requested.
• Information that is accessible by other means, for example, via a website.
• Information intended for future publication.
• Information that is subject to a confidentiality agreement, such as in a signed consent form.
• Sensitive data held under restricted access by a data archive.

Freedom of information requests and research data deposited in an archive

If research data were given in confidence to an archive and the release of such data would breach this confidence, then a FOI request to disclose such research data can be refused.

Such research data could be data that under the licence agreement are only available to researchers, or may even have been placed under more restrictive access conditions due to the data being confidential.

In addition, if a ‘record’ (e.g. research data) contains personal data (under the definition of the DPA or the GDPR) that would allow a person to be identified from the data, then such data cannot be released under the FOI Act.

In general, a FOI request entitles access to the content of information held, not necessarily to an exact original document (e.g. an interview transcript or dataset).

Article 8 of the Human Rights Act 1998 enshrines the right to respect for private and family life, one’s home and one’s correspondence. Researchers need to keep this mind where it concerns using data that relate to human beings.

Where data sharing is covered by, and complies with, the Data Protection Act, then it is almost certain that it will also comply with the Human Rights Act, Article 8.

The Statistics and Registration Services Act 2007 is mainly concerned with the structure and function of the UK Statistics Authority and applies only to data designated as Official Statistics.

The Act defines the legal gateways under which ‘personal information’ can be disclosed. According to the Act, information identifies a particular person: If the identity of that person is specified in the information, it can be deduced from the information, or it can be deduced from the information taken together with any other published information.

The Act only allows for the disclosure of personal information to an ‘Approved Researcher’, i.e. An individual to whom the Statistics Authority has granted access, for the purposes of statistical research.

The criteria for access require the Statistics Authority to consider whether the individual is a ‘fit and proper’ person, and the purpose for which access is requested. The Act also states that the disclosure of ‘personal information’ outside of the legal gateways is a criminal offence.

Although the Act does not apply to individual researchers managing confidential research data not designated as Official Statistics, such researchers should adapt the Approved Researcher model for access to confidential data.

The Environmental Information Regulations 2004 gives the public access rights to environmental information held by a public authority (including universities) in response to requests, similar to the Freedom of Information Act.

Freedom of access does not imply free access. There are circumstances under which requests may or must be refused, for example if the data contain personal information.

Environmental information constitutes:

• The state of environmental elements, such as: The air, atmosphere, water, soil, land, landscape, natural sites, biological diversity and its components, genetically modified organisms and the interaction among these elements.
• Factors such as: Substances, energy, noise, radiation, waste, emissions, discharges and other releases into the environment, affecting, or likely to affect the elements of the environment.
• Measures such as: Policies, legislation, plans, programmes, environmental agreements and activities affecting, or likely to affect, the elements and factors, as well as measures or activities designed to protect those elements.
• Reports on the implementation of environmental legislation.
• Cost-benefit and other economic analyses and assumptions used within the framework of the measures and activities.
• The state of human health and safety, including the contamination of the food chain, conditions of human life, cultural sites and built structures, in as much as they are, or may be affected by the state of the elements of the environment.

Researchers may have gained or purchased data under a license or data sharing agreement or may have downloaded or scraped data from a website owned by a private company. In both cases the use and onward sharing of these data fall under the legally binding contractual terms and conditions of use, that will have been provided by the data owner. This may be hidden in small print.

Researchers should always check the contract, terms and conditions on the website, or seek approval from the website /data owner, so they do not fall foul of any misuse, for example by passing on or republishing data. Read more on Intellectual property rights scenarios for data sharing.