We have recently reached the fifth anniversary of the formation of the Research Accreditation Panel (RAP) by the UK Statistics Authority (the Authority). This is an opportune moment to reflect on the successes of the RAP’s work, and to outline our priorities for the next five years and beyond.
The UK Government has stated aims to drive economic growth, prosperity, and equitable policy making, and has outlined a mission-led plan for change. Such a plan will rely on reliable evidence to deliver improvements to public policy. An example of the Government’s enthusiasm for making better use of public data is the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025:
“The Government are using technology to grow the economy and create new jobs in order to empower citizens and deliver a smaller, smarter state, but none of that is possible without data… An outdated approach to data is holding Britain’s economy back. This Bill will take the brakes off, unleashing a new era of wealth and opportunity for all”
Peter Kyle, Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, Second reading of the Data (Use and Access) Bill in the House of Lords, 12th February 2025
To deliver the reliable evidence the Government needs, researchers must be able to access public data for the public good.
How the RAP is supporting data sharing
The RAP’s role in delivering the Government’s plan for change is to act as an independent panel to facilitate the use of routinely collected public data for research that is in the public good, in line with the expectations laid out in the Digital Economy Act 2017 (DEA). Specifically, the RAP has three functions:
- Overseeing the accreditation of researchers who wish to access routinely collected public data
- Accrediting and reviewing the performance of the Trusted Research Environments (TREs) that hold, and provide access to, routinely collected public data
- Reviewing and accrediting the specific projects that researchers would like to undertake to make sure they are feasible, ethical and will serve the public good
Since the introduction of the DEA, the research community can point to some excellent progress based on cross-government data sharing. Look, for example, at the various projects that have taken advantage of the Longitudinal Education Outcomes (LEO) dataset which links educational outcomes with subsequent employment, benefits and earnings data.
The Authority has also worked alongside stakeholders to increase the sharing of administrative data between government departments. Since its establishment five years ago, the RAP has accredited:
- More than 6200 researchers
- Twelve processing environments
- More than 1300 individual research projects
Encouragingly, the number of research project applications the RAP accredits is increasing year on year, with over 240 projects accredited in 2025 to date. This increase has been facilitated by the continual optimisation of the RAP project application approval processes:
- The application forms have been simplified
- The understanding of ‘public good’ has been refined
- Assessments are now completed online as and when received, rather than at rigid monthly meetings
- A ‘project accreditation tool’ has been designed which allows the RAP secretariat to accredit low risk, simpler projects, removing the need for full panel involvement
- More complex projects, including those that request new data linkages, are assessed by a sub-set of appropriately qualified panel members
These process improvements have dramatically decreased the time it takes for the RAP to review applications. In 2021, the RAP used the same accreditation process for all projects and the average time taken was 19 working days. In 2025 the majority (55%) of projects were reviewed and accredited using secretariat sign-off taking an average of 0.63 working days and more complex projects (45%), that required review by RAP panel members, were reviewed in an average of 3.1 working days. Combined, this led to an average review time in 2025 of 1.75 days.
Under the RAP’s stewardship, the variety of research that has been carried out using Government data has also expanded considerably, as more datasets have been accessed and wider groups of researchers have begun to use the service. Research communities are utilising the DEA in England, Northern Ireland, Wales, and now Scotland, contributing to a more aligned UK data landscape. The departments for Education, Work and Pensions, Health, Justice, Business and Trade, and HMRC are among those who have supplied data for such work. And the impact of the work conducted is clear; examples of recent research accredited by the RAP include:
- Assessing the impact of the minimum wage on young people using the Longitudinal Education Outcomes (LEO) dataset
- Exploring how criminal reoffending occurs within families and across generations, such that these rates can be reduced
- Understanding the impacts on children when parents are imprisoned
- Comparing the labour market outcomes for those who do and do not receive different types of health intervention
RAP’s future priorities
However, the RAP agrees with the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR) that the wealth of UK public data is a critical infrastructure that remains under-utilised. The reviews undertaken by the RAP constitute only one part of the data access journey and we are now working with TREs to understand the time taken for the full data access journey, and what further improvements we can make. With a joined up cross-government vision that efficient data linkage is a priority, even more can be done to help improve the health, wealth and well-being of the nation.
That is why the RAP is setting out a new 5-year agenda to tackle the key issues affecting researchers’ access to administrative data for the public good. Our agenda includes the following commitments:
- We will bring improvements to the project application experience, through sharing best practice across TREs and further standardising the application process, including reducing the duplication of information requested and integrating ethical oversight into the research project application form
- We will expect TREs to report their turnaround times to the RAP on a regular and consistent basis
- Some health data linkage is not included under the purview of the DEA and while we will continue to advocate that a legislative change would be beneficial, in the meantime we will recommend an efficient mechanism for facilitating such projects in line with the approach taken by the RAP for non-health projects
- We already accredit ‘programmes of research’, but we are aware that our approach to this requires better communication and accompanying processes. We will reduce the need for a series of time-consuming single hypothesis applications for affected researchers
- We are considering the different needs of researchers, including academics, government analysts, third sector researchers, researchers at research environments or institutes, and those from business, and will design accreditation processes that can accommodate this variation
- We will continue to reiterate why the DEA is needed and the benefit it delivers to the wider research community, while undertaking a review of the Research Accreditation Criteria to ensure they are as effective as possible and reflect the ever-changing data landscape
- We will work with government departments to advocate better access to data, and, building on the recommendations from the OSR, we will suggest practical ways that will make data access easier and more common
- We will support the Authority in its work to review and update the ‘five safes’ approach
- We will provide an annual report to the Authority Board, summarising the RAP’s work, and drawing attention to both best practice and areas for improvement in the overall data access journey experienced by researchers
This agenda has been guided by evidence and expert insight such as the recent report on data linkage from the OSR, Cathie Sudlow’s recent review recommending ways to overcome the barriers that currently delay the sharing and research use of health data, and the RAP’s own researcher consultation.
To continue enabling such meaningful research and to fulfil our ambitions for the next 5 years and beyond, the RAP will engage with key stakeholders from the UK and overseas. This includes processing environments, data owners, researchers, and key figures in the civil service and government. We believe that this is an opportune moment to make a step-change in the use of government data for research in the public good. With concerted support and a system based on trust, we can deliver change to policy and practice that will help drive social and economic change for the better of all.
Professor Paul Boyle
Chair of the Research Accreditation Panel