Research Accreditation Panel

October 2024

1. Introduction

1. The Research Accreditation Panel (RAP) provides independent oversight of and guidance on the operationalisation of the following legal gateways which allow accredited and approved researchers to access data for research and statistical purposes:
   1. Digital Economy Act 2017 (DEA) (Part 5, Chapter 5) which includes an important statutory framework to support the UK research community, both within government and beyond, that permits public authorities to share de-identified information with accredited researchers for the purposes of public good research. Under the DEA, the UK Statistics Authority (The Authority) is the statutory body that will oversee the accreditation of researchers, projects, processors and secure access environments, as set out in the Research Code of Practice and Accreditation Criteria; and
   2. The Statistics and Registration Service Act (SRSA) 2007 at s.39(4)(i) allows access to unpublished data held by Office for National Statistics (ONS) by approved researchers for the purpose of statistical research. The Approved Researcher gateway in the SRSA is operationalised in line with the Research Code of Practice and Accreditation Criteria.
2. The RAP provides advice to the National Statistician on the ways in which these legal gateways are operationalised to ensure compliance with legal requirements and efficiency of service for research accreditation. The RAP also advises the National Statistician on work that could be undertaken by the Authority to maximise the impact of the Research powers within the DEA 2017.

2. Role and Responsibilities

Independent oversight of accreditation operations

1. All projects involving access to data for research purposes using the SRSA Approved Researcher gateway (as of 9 September 2021) and the DEA Research power will be consistently accredited using a common set of established frameworks and standards, as overseen by the RAP. The RAP will also have oversight of the established framework and standards used to accredit processing environments under the Research power in the DEA, as well as the framework and standards to both approve and accredit researchers under the SRSA and the DEA, respectively.
2. The RAP has oversight of the processes that the Authority operationalises to grant access to de-identified data to accredited researchers, to ensure that this is independent, consistent, and transparent. The RAP will oversee the framework used to accredit research projects, researchers and processing environments. The framework used is set out in the Research Code of Practice and Accreditation Criteria.
3. Through application of the research project accreditation framework, where it is judged that independent advice and assurance is required, research project applications may be considered directly by the RAP.
4. Where DEA accredited processing environments submit projects for RAP consideration, the RAP will provide a final project accreditation decision on behalf of the Authority. All data owner approvals for the project must be in place before the project is considered by the RAP. The project accreditation will be published on the Authority website.
5. Regarding the accreditation and compliance reviews of accredited data processing environments, the RAP will receive regular reports and advice from expert assessors appointed by the Authority. The RAP will provide an accreditation decision based on the expert advice provided.
6. Regarding the accreditation of researchers, the RAP will receive regular updates from approved providers of researcher accreditation on the operationalisation of these processes. The RAP will provide advice to providers to ensure the process for accrediting and approving researchers is in line with the Research Code of Practice and Accreditation Criteria.

Independent strategic advice to the National Statistician

1. The RAP provides independent advice to the Authority, which is the statutory accrediting body for Chapter 5 of Part 5 of the DEA, on how the Authority can best support public good research through strategic improvements to the operationalisation and use of the DEA Research powers.
2. The RAP will receive reports that provide insight into the operation of the data access landscape as related to accredited processing environments, and advise the Authority on how it might best work with accredited processors to support improvements to the wider data access process, for which research accreditation is one part.
3. Regarding the withdrawal of accreditation, the Research Code of Practice and Accreditation Criteria sets out the circumstances in which accreditation can be withdrawn from accredited processors (at 22.1), accredited researchers (at 29.1), and accredited research projects (at 38.1). Where areas of non-compliance are identified across each of these areas which could result in the withdrawal of accreditation, the RAP will be provided with a report on the issue. The RAP will provide advice to the Authority Board through the National Statistician on the withdrawal of accreditation of a processing environment, researcher or research project.

3. Meetings

1. The RAP will meet on a quarterly basis. The Chair of RAP may convene additional meetings as deemed necessary and the RAP may transact business via correspondence as necessary.
2. The workload of the RAP relating to project accreditation will be managed as follows:
   1. DEA Accredited Data Processing Environments will validate each research project accreditation application against the framework agreed by the RAP. The Authority will accredit research projects that prove compliant with the research accreditation framework. Projects accredited by this means will be periodically reported to the RAP for oversight and audit purposes;
   2. where necessary, research project accreditation applications will be forwarded to the RAP for review, whereby the RAP will provide an accreditation decision on the project;
   3. in these instances, the RAP will consider research project applications by correspondence by default. The RAP reserves the right to defer the consideration of research project applications considered by correspondence to sitting meetings, should additional discussion be required.

4. Reporting

1. The RAP will report to the Authority Board through the National Statistician.
2. The RAP will operate transparently. The RAP’s discussions during meetings will be minuted and made publicly available on the Authority website. A list of projects accredited under the Research framework overseen by the RAP will be published on the Authority website, including projects accredited under the Research strand of the DEA from October 2019 onwards, and projects approved under Section (39)(4)(i) of the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007 from 9 September 2021 onwards. Summary information on applications rejected by the RAP and the reasons for the rejection will be published.
3. The RAP may resolve to publish additional reports which communicate the work of the RAP and other relevant matters at any time.
4. At least seven days prior to its meetings, the RAP will receive reports as it requires.
5. When required, research project applications will be submitted to RAP members via correspondence on a rolling basis. Members may receive up to four project applications via correspondence per month.

5. Appeals

1. Researchers and potential processors will have a right to appeal the processes and procedures of the RAP. An appeal can be considered if sufficient evidence has been provided that the RAP’s assessment was not conducted in accordance with the RAP’s standard procedures and processes or some other material irregularity related to the assessment process has occurred.
2. Appeals must be submitted to the Authority within 28 working days of the RAP’s initial decision.
3. If the appeal fulfils the criteria set out above the appeal will be considered by an Appeals Panel. The Secretariat will inform the National Statistician (or their nominee) and the National Statistician will convene an Appeals Panel including the Chair of the RAP, an independent member of the RAP, and the Chair of the National Statistician’s Data Ethics Advisory Committee. The Appeals Panel have the option of including an independent subject matter expert on the Panel, depending on the nature of the project. Where an appeal is received from a processor (or applicant as a processor), the Panel will also include the ONS Chief Security Officer. Members of the Appeals Panel can appoint a delegate to attend the Appeals Panel in their place.
4. The Appeals Panel will convene a meeting within 15 working days after the submission deadline for the appeal. In reaching a decision the Appeals Panel will have access to all documents needed to reach a decision.
5. The RAP Secretariat will inform the appellant of the conclusion of the Appeals Panel within 15 working days of the Appeals Panel reaching a decision.
6. The Appeal Panel’s judgement is final and cannot be subject to further appeal.

6. Membership and role of members

1. The members of the RAP will include:
   1. an independent Chair (appointed by the National Statistician);
   2. at least three representatives of data providers in the UK Government and the Devolved Administrations;
   3. a senior representative of the National Statistician; and
   4. at least four independent members which should be senior researchers from different areas of specialism (e.g., social science, statistics, economics and data science) from a variety of different sectors (e.g., academia, commercial and third sector).
2. The Chair may invite other relevant experts as appropriate to advise the RAP

7. Quorum

1. The RAP meetings will be considered quorate when at least four or more members are present including the Chair or the Chair’s delegated nominee, and at least one independent member.
2. Substitutes will not be permitted to attend meetings, unless with the invitation of the Chair.
3. When conducting business via correspondence, the RAP’s discussion and decisions will be considered quorate when at least four or more members provide written response, including at least one independent member.
4. Those research project accreditation applications that are formally considered by correspondence must be approved by all assigned RAP members. The RAP will not conduct project accreditation through passive agreement.

8. Secretariat

1. The Authority’s Data Governance, Legislation, and Policy team will be responsible for the RAP’s secretariat, overseeing the appointment of members alongside the RAP Chair, organising meetings and ensuring that the RAP operates transparently. DEA Accredited Processing Environments and Government departments will be responsible for providing technical support to the secretariat including liaising with applicants, reviewing the research project accreditation applications, and applying the RAP’s project accreditation framework.

9. Review

1. The RAP will review the effectiveness of its meetings and its terms of reference annually.

10. Membership as of 10 September 2024

1. The membership of the RAP is currently:
   1. Chair: Professor Paul Boyle;
   2. Independent lay/expert members: Professor Ann Berrington, Professor Chris Dibben, Tricia Dodd, Andrew Garrett, Roger Halliday, Andrew McHugh, and Professor Alex Singleton;
   3. Representative of the National Statistician: Sarah Henry (Director, Methods Data Research, Office for National Statistics);
   4. Representative of UK Research and Innovation: Emma Gordon;
   5. Representatives of data providers: Sue Bateman (Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs), Martin Bowyer (Cabinet Office), Mark Brewin (HMRC), Michael Chapman (NHS Digital), Geraint Jowers (HM Revenue & Customs), and Paul Lodge (Department for Work and Pensions); and
   6. Representatives of the devolved administrations: Philip Wales (Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency), Alistair McAlpine (Scottish Government), Stephanie Howarth (Welsh Government).
2. The RAP is also supported by:
   1. Secretariat: Daniel Beck and Lewis Hopcroft (Data Governance, Legislation & Policy, UK Statistics Authority)
   2. Advisors: Jason Riches (Legal Services, UK Statistics Authority), Keith Nicholson (Chief Security Officer, ONS), and Rhys Nadin (Interim Data Protection Officer, UK Statistics Authority).

• 30 March 2026
• 29 June 2026
• 29 September 2026
• 15 December 2026

The Research Accreditation Panel is chaired by independent member Professor Paul Boyle CBE. Professor Boyle is currently Vice-Chancellor of Swansea University and was previously President and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Leicester from 2014 to 2019. Prior to that, he was Chief Executive of the Economic and Social Research Council from 2010 to 2014 and President of Science Europe, representing over 50 European funding agencies. Paul is Chair of the Scottish Science Advisory Council, which is Scotland’s highest level science advisory body; a Board Member of Universities UK, who provide leadership and support to executive heads of 133 UK University institutions as well as Chair of their Research Policy Network; Vice-President of the European University Association which represents over 800 universities in 48 countries; a Council Member and Trustee of the Association of Commonwealth Universities, which has over 500 member institutions in 37 Commonwealth countries and an ‘impact champion’ for the United Nations HeForShe global solidarity movement for gender equality.

Independent member Professor Chris Dibben is Chair in Geography at the University of Edinburgh, specialising in health and environment. He is also Director of the Longitudinal Studies Centre Scotland, Principal-Investigator on the Census & Administrative Data Longitudinal Hub and Director of the Administrative Data Liaison Service. Chris also leads the Scottish Centre for Administrative Data Research hosted by the University of Edinburgh.

Independent member Tricia Dodd is a freelance statistical consultant working mainly with national survey organisations, charities and government departments. She previously held a number of Senior Civil Service positions within the Office for National Statistics including: Chief Methodology Officer at ONS (2016-2018), Deputy Director responsible for Crime and Regional Statistics, ONS (2013-2016) and Deputy Director responsible for Health Statistics and Life Events, ONS (2011-2013).

Independent member Andrew Garrett is Executive Vice President-Scientific Operations at ICON Plc. Between 1995 and 2016 he was Vice President-Clinical Analysis and Reporting Services at Quintiles, Inc. He has previously served on the Board of Directors at Cenduit LLC (2015) and the Administrative Data Research Network (2014-2017). Between 2017 and 2019 he was Chair of the Royal Statistical Society’s Data Science Section and is a member of the UK Data Forum.

Independent member Alex Singleton is a Professor of Geographic Information Science at the University of Liverpool, where he was appointed as a Lecturer in 2010. Previously he held research positions at University College London, where he was also awarded a PhD in 2007.

Independent member Ann Berrington is Professor in Demography and Social Statistics at the University of Southampton, with expertise in the area of family demography and life course inequalities. She is currently joint Head of the Department of Social Statistics and Demography and leads the Fertility and Family Strand of the Centre for Population Change. Ann is a member of the ESRC Strategic Advisory Network, the ESRC Expert Advisory Group on Data, Methods and Infrastructure, and the UKRI Population Research UK Programme Board.

Roger Halliday is Chief Executive of Research Data Scotland, which was established in 2020 to enable innovation in the public good through access and linkage of data around people, places and businesses. Roger was Scotland’s Chief Statistician from 2011 to April 2022. During that time he was also Scottish Government Chief Data Officer (2017-20), and jointly led Scottish Government Covid Analytical Team during the pandemic. Before that, he worked in the Department of Health in England as a policy analyst managing evidence for decision making across NHS issues.

He qualified with a degree in statistics in 1993 from St. Andrews University and joined the Government fast stream as an assistant statistician. He worked for various UK Government Departments and at the Scottish Government in a number of statistical and policy making roles. He became an honorary Professor at the University of Glasgow in 2019.

Sue Bateman is the Chief Data Officer for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra). Sue joined Defra in 2024 and leads work on how data and information are used to support the department’s own transformation journey. Sue is a longstanding civil servant with digital, data and strategy leadership experience – most recently having been the interim Government Chief Data Officer at Central Digital and Data Office where she led on the development and delivery of the National Data Strategy and Digital and Data Roadmap and the data sharing components of the Digital Economy Act 2017.

Martin Bowyer leads a team of talented and creative digital and security experts in the Central Digital and Data Office, the functional centre for digital technology in the UK Government. Based in the Cabinet Office, he works with the National Cyber Security Centre, cyber experts and digital teams across the public sector to provide pragmatic solutions to digital and cyber challenges. A co-author of the UK Government’s Cyber Security and Digital & Data Strategies, Martin brings practical experience to help deliver great digital services that are secure by design. Martin is also responsible for critical technical infrastructure used by the UK public sector.

Martin’s background is in Consulting. Before joining the UK Government, Martin delivered technology transformation programmes, technology consulting and assurance engagements and grew a successful public sector cyber business in a top tier consultancy.

Independent member Mark Brewin is Deputy Director for Data Sharing & Acquisition at HM Revenue & Customs. He has previously held various positions within the Civil Service, including serving as Head of Knowledge, Analysis and Intelligence’s Technology Management within HMRC’s Datalab & Transparency team.

Michael Chapman is Director of Data Access & Partnerships in NHS England’s Data & Analytics function. He is responsible for ensuring that patient data held by NHS England can be used safely, efficiently and transparently to improve health. Previously Michael has held leadership roles at Health Data Research UK’s Cambridge scientific site, Cancer Research UK, the National Cancer Research Institute and the National Cancer Intelligence Network.

Emma Gordon is Director of the Strategic Hub for ADR UK. Emma joined ADR UK from HM Treasury, where she led the team supporting government economists and social researchers across government. Prior to this, Emma was Head of Health Analysis at the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

Sarah Henry represents the National Statistician on the Panel. Sarah is the Director of Methods, Data and Research at the Office for National Statistics. She was previously Head of Intelligence and Performance at Manchester City Council.

Mike Jones heads the Department for Work and Pension’s (DWP) Central Analysis and Science Strategy division and is DWP’s Deputy Chief Scientific Advisor.  His responsibilities include research governance, and oversight of DWP’s analytical data-sharing activity.  Mike has nearly 20 years’ experience in the Government Statistical Service, has worked in a variety of analytical and policy roles, and has previously served as Chief Statistician in both the Department for Work and Pensions and the Department for Education (DfE).

Gez is currently acting as Deputy Chief Information Security Officer and Head of Cyber Security Technical Services (CSTS) for HMRC. Responsible for leading and delivering a range of cyber security services and cyber operational activities across HMRC.  Gez is also responsible for leading the Government Security Centre for Cyber (Cyber GSEC) which is run by HMRC on behalf of the Cabinet Office and the Government Security Group (GSG) and has been created to support the delivery of the Governments Cyber Security Strategy across HMG. Gez is an experienced Cyber Security professional with extensive experience across a number of security domains and sectors including HMG, MoD, NATO, SIA and the commercial sectors.

Philip Wales is the Chief Executive of the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) and Registrar General for Northern Ireland. In these capacities, he is responsible for the statistics produced by NISRA and for the registration of births, deaths, civil partnerships and adoptions in Northern Ireland. He is the co-Director of Administrative Data Research Northern Ireland, part of the wider ADR UK partnership. Before joining NISRA, Philip worked in a range of senior statistical roles in the Office for National Statistics, including on the UK Public Finances and Productivity.

Ally McAlpine is the Chief Statistician at the Scottish Government. In this role he is responsible for the production of Official Statistics and advisor to the First Minister and Cabinet Secretaries in Scotland. Ally is also the co-director Administrative Data Research Scotland. Prior to taking up this post he has extensive experience in agriculture, environmental and social justice statistics and a background in crime statistics where he worked as Performance Manager in Central Scotland Police.

Stephanie Howarth is Chief Statistician at the Welsh Government. In this role she is responsible for the statistics produced by Welsh Government and is the senior statistical advisor to Welsh Ministers. She is also the co-Director of Administrative Data Research Wales, part of the wider ADR UK partnership. Prior to this, she worked in a range of statistical roles in both the Welsh Government and the Office for National Statistics.