Sharing of data with NRS – benefits and barriers

National Records of Scotlandpreserving the past; recording the present; informing the future

Sharing of data with NRS – benefits and barriers

Kirsty MacLachlan

National Records of Scotland


• Aim

• Background

• Data sources

• Charts with comparisons

• Benefits to LAs

• Data Protection issues

• Way forward?


Aim of project

• To assess the feasibility of having an alternative to a traditional census – a decision is required in 2014

• To explore potential of improving the quality of inter-censal population statistics


Background• Census

– conducted only every 10 years– costs about £65m– increased mobility of the population– response rates to surveys are dropping


McLelland Review

‘Although sensitive to information protection and privacy issues, the citizen would expect that public bodies will share and move information across internal boundaries, particularly where there is an advantage to the citizen or the community when this happens’


Challenges in using admin data• Coverage : gaps, duplication

• Definitions, geographical scope

• Timing, currency

• Breadth of information

• Quality (completeness, accuracy, consistency)


Sources of admin data• School Census• Child Benefit• DWP State Pension Age Benefits• NHS central Register and Community health Index• Council Tax systems• DWP Other Benefits• Electoral Register• Higher Education Student Record (HESA)• National Insurance Recording System (NIRS)• One Scotland Gazeteer (OSG)• Local Data Sources


Coverage Survey

NHSCR

HESA

School Census

Other localdata Benefits

Address UniversePerson Universe

Electoral register

BirthRegistrations

Death Registrations

Administrative ListPersons

Census Address FileCorporate Address

Gazetteer

Address File [Register]

Census

Demographic spineMethodology


Coverage Survey

Census

Administrative records census

3 rd lis

t: TS

E

QA

Imp

uta

tion

Demographic SpineUpdates/

MaintenanceStatistical Population

Register?

Surveys


Examples of comparisons of aggregate data


CIS, NHSCR and MYE by Age

-

10,000

20,000

30,000

40,000

50,000

60,000

70,000

80,000

90,000

100,000

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90

Age

Po

pu

lati

on

CIS Population

MYE Population

NHSCR








Figure 1: Comparison of CHI and 2001 Census, total overcount by Local Authority

-6.0%

-4.0%

-2.0%

0.0%

2.0%

4.0%

6.0%

8.0%

10.0%

12.0%

Mora

y

Arg

yll

& B

ute

Eile

an S

iar

Shetla

nd Isla

nds

Ork

ney Isla

nds

Dum

frie

s &

Gallo

way

Falk

irk

Hig

hla

nd

West Loth

ian

Aberd

eenshire

Scottis

h B

ord

ers

East Loth

ian

Cla

ckm

annanshire

East A

yrs

hire

Fife

Pert

h &

Kin

ross

Mid

loth

ian

Stir

ling

East R

enfr

ew

shire

South

Ayrs

hire

Angus

South

Lanark

shire

SC

OT

LA

ND

Renfr

ew

shire

Nort

h A

yrs

hire

West D

unbart

onshire

East D

unbart

onshire

Nort

h L

anark

shire

Aberd

een C

ity

Inverc

lyde

Dundee C

ity

Edin

burg

h, C

ity o

f

Gla

sgow

City

Local Authority

Pe

rce

nta

ge

ove

rco

un

t


Figure 2: Comparison of NHSCR and 2010 Mid Year Estimates, total overcount by

Local Authority

-2.0%

0.0%

2.0%

4.0%

6.0%

8.0%

10.0%

12.0%

Shetla

nd Isla

nds

Pert

h &

Kin

ross

Arg

yll

& B

ute

Mora

y

Scottis

h B

ord

ers

Falk

irk

Fife

Ork

ney Isla

nds

Stir

ling

West Loth

ian

East A

yrs

hire

East Loth

ian

Cla

ckm

annanshire

Aberd

eenshire

South

Ayrs

hire

Eile

an S

iar

Hig

hla

nd

Dum

frie

s &

Gallo

way

East R

enfr

ew

shire

Edin

burg

h, C

ity o

f

Mid

loth

ian

South

Lanark

shire

SC

OT

LA

ND

Nort

h A

yrs

hire

East D

unbart

onshire

West D

unbart

onshire

Angus

Nort

h L

anark

shire

Renfr

ew

shire

Inverc

lyde

Dundee C

ity

Aberd

een C

ity

Gla

sgow

City

Local Authority

Pe

rce

nta

ge

ove

rco

un

t


Examples of comparisons with record level data


Linking NHSCR records to HESA recordsto identify Scottish students studying in E&W

• NHSCR – 665,000 people born between 1984 and 1990 (and hence of student age in 2007/9)

• HESA – 6,909 students born between 1984 and 1990 and with either a non-Scottish term time post code or none at all

• HESA data needed careful processing to distinguish between students located in England/Wales and those doing distance learning courses

• Of the HESA records, 6,534 (94.6%) were confidently linked to the NHSCR file

• Those who could not be linked were more likely to be of non-GB nationality (12% vs 4%) and non-white ethnicity (19% vs 10%)

• Using only linked records for students following first degrees and for whom complete data is available leaves 3,893 records.


Figure 3: 3,893 first degree students domiciled in Scotland but studying in England 2007-9

Location of health board registration at end of academic year by year of study

Region

Year of study

1st 2nd 3rd4th and beyond

Scotland 27% 19% 18% 14%

England / Wales 71% 79% 81% 85%

Other 2% 2% 1% 1%

Total 1,279 1,157 987 470


Potentially useful LA data?• School census (including names)

• Housing benefit

• Landlord register

• Houses in Multiple Occupation

• Council tax


Benefits• To enable a feasibility study to inform requirement for legal

change• To help improve population and migration estimates thus

improving resource allocation• To help identify potential data sources• To help identify any data issues in terms of coverage, definitions

etc.• To learn more about the uses to which administrative data might

be put both within NRS and Councils• To facilitate sharing of information and joint working between

departments within Councils• To help improve the accuracy of the council data• To reduce the data burden on users by synchronising databases• To allow processes to be rehearsed for creating a population

spine using the census


Safeguards• NRS is ‘trusted’ and ‘gold standard’

• NRS work under census legislation – all data would be protected to an equivalent standard

• NRS has considerable expertise in securely transporting and storing large amounts of personal data and in producing anonymised statistics (e.g. SLS, SHELS)


Data Protection issues

• Legal framework is complex and overlapping

• No single source of law that regulates public sector data sharing

• First step is for LAs to determine whether they have vires for data sharing

• Use codes of practice to help ensure good practice


• Purposes for sharing data – statistical– Necessary for the exercise of function

conferred on RG

• Fair processing– Privacy notice requirement?– How should notice be given?


Proposed way forward?• Do nothing

– Miss opportunity to make use of 2011 census as a benchmark

• Step up research to integrate existing sources– Enable a decision about census alternatives

to be made in 2014– Improve quality of data


Questions• What are the key barriers?

• What steps do we need to take to enable data to be shared and to ensure fair processing?

• What would give greater reassurance to data controllers?

• How can we best work together?

Date post:	18-Jan-2016
Category:	Documents
Upload:	shawn
View:	26 times
Download:	0 times

Sharing of data with NRS – benefits and barriers

Documents