Opportunities and benefits of strategic partnershipsHeather Savory

Deputy National Statistician and Director General for Data Capability

heather.savory@ons.gov.uk

@SaturnSA4

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Data Sharing Gateways via the SRSA

Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007 – as amended by

the Digital Economy Act 2017

S42 - allows the Registrar General to disclose civil registration data to the Board for any of its functions

S42 (4) - allows the Board to disclosure civil registration to certain Health Bodies for statistical purposesS43 S44 - allows disclosure of English and Welsh Health registration data to the Board for the production of population statistics. This is demographic data only, nothing about health.

S45 - allows HMRC to disclose any of the information it holds for its functions to the Board for any of their functions

S45A - Creates a permissive gateway for all public authorities to share their information with the Board, and overcomes all restrictions on disclosure other than the DPA

S45B - Gives the Board the power to require disclosure of information from a Crown Body, provided it does not breach the DPA

S45C S45D - Gives the Board the power to require personal information from public authorities and private undertakings, with failure to do so a criminal offence, provided it does not breach the DPA

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Other Data Sharing GatewaysStatistics of Trade Act 1947 S9 STA allows information collected under the Act to be disclosed to an

OGD for any of their functions, if a minister so directs

Regulations made under S251 NHSA permit the use of controlled patient information in research approved by the SoS

S58 FA allows HMRC to disclose PAYE information to the Board for the purposes of running a statistical survey

S91 VATA allows HMRC to disclose VAT information to the Board for maintaining a statistical business register or running a survey

S122AA of the Social Survey Administration Act allows HMRC to disclose to the Board information relating to benefits

S3 of the Agricultural Statistics Act 1977 allows DEFRA to share with the Board agricultural information, for any of the Boards functions

Common law powers . All ministerial departments, unless prevented from doing so by legislation, may share information with the Board without the need for an explicit legal gateway. However many departments are reluctant to do so.

National Health Service Act 2006

Finance Act 1969

Vat Act 1994

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Data we hold and how we use itData Catalogue

Metadata

Security / Access rights

Analysis

Open Data

Government Information Infrastructure

Registers/Core Reference Data

Local Government

Central Government

Census

Citizens

Business

Business-facing Services

Policy Design /EfficiencyAcademic Research

Innovation

Citizen-facing Services

Statistics/Economic Analysis

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Our Data EstateStatistical production:Secure, in-house accessONS staff

Statistical research:Working in partnerships, project-based access

Statistical services:Match, link, annonymise data:

internal and 3rd party use

3rd party disclosure: Accredited research and

statistics

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Barriers to sharing Working with data partners

Sources & Supplies of Data

• Perceived data quality

• Competitive advantage

• Customer concerns

• Culture

• Technological/security challenges

• Identify relevant data

• Understand available data & uses

• Partnership agreement

• Supplier collaboration (metadata/feasibility/test data)

• Specification- legal basis, data environment, any publication requirements

• On-going relationship when data received -transparency of use, shared insight, potential for further data

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Benefits: sharing data through partnerships

Collaboration

Capability Building

Benchmarking

Multi-Sector

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Issues we consider

Access

Quality

Security

Data Use/Ethics

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Working in partnership

• Collaborations with national, international and local government

• Agreements with multiple external partners including universities, research institutes and international statistical institutions

• International partners eg Netherlands, Rwanda, Canada, New Zealand & Norway

• PhD programmes, Centres for Doctoral Training & PhD co-funding with partners

• Projects for MSc students in Data Science• Commercial businesses – market engagement with Barclaycard,

PwC …

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ONS Case Study: Global Platform

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Data science projects with impact across ONS

Using images to improve data on local environment£1Bn value trees in urban areas (air pollution, health, wellbeing)But poor data at local level on tree & urban greeneryDEFRA, ONS Natural Capital team, UN Global Pulse

Early indicator of economic growth, using company-level VAT returns Rapid identification of GDP growth changes can inform responsive economic policyONS National Accounts, Bank of England, HM Treasury

Commuter flow estimates from Vodafone mobile phone data (residence to workplace)Fine-grained estimates, by time of day, mode of transportGood match to Census commuting data – potential for improved & timely understanding of economic areas & flowsONS. Local Authorities. BEIS. DCLG

Measuring the urban forest

Mobile phone data for commuter flows (Big Data)

Superfast GDP indicator from VAT turnover

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Supporting innovative data science at government scale

Delivering in collaboration

Projects – apply learning & expertiseAnalytical FunctionDECA and Data Advisory BoardData science accelerator mentoringArtificial Intelligence and Machine Learning

Technical and data infrastructure (ONS and government)

Digital Economy ActData ethics – NSDECData as a ServiceTechnical infrastructure – storage and compute toolsData reuse for users – Secure Research Services

Building & supporting capability

Government Data Science PartnershipData Analytics ApprenticeshipsMSc Data Analytics for GovernmentPhD programme & placementsTraining for departments & teams

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Partnering with academia – building capability

• Cross-govt training & train-the-trainers• Apprenticeships in Data Analytics• MSc Data Analytics for Government• Continuous Professional Development • Data Science Accelerator and ONS Data

Science Academy mentoring• STEM Ambassadors• Co-funded & co-supervised PhD placements

and programmes

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Thank you

Heather Savory Deputy National Statistician & Director General for Data Capability

heather.savory@ons.gov.uk

@SaturnSA4

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