Publications

The argument for access to sensitive unit-level data produced within government is usually framed in terms of risk, and the legal responsibility to maintain confidentiality, even where the government has a duty to provide data. This paper argues that the way the question is framed may be restricting the set of possibilities; and that the…

Statistical disclosure control (SDC) in a research environment poses particular problems. Most SDC research is concerned with ensuring that a finite set of tabular outputs are safe from disclosure, or that microdatasets are sufficiently anonymised. By its nature, a research environment is one where confidential data is made available for analysis with very few restrictions….

Disclosure detection and control for analytical outputs is an almost unexplored field. However, with the increase in access to detailed microdata, it is becoming increasingly important to be able to quantify exactly what the risks are from allowing, for example, regression coefficients to be released. This paper looks in detail at the risks of linear…

Access to restricted microdata for research is increasingly part of the data dissemination strategy within countries, made possible by improvements in technology and changes in the risk-benefit perceptions of NSIs. For international data sharing, relatively little progress has been made. Recent developments in Germany, the Netherlands and the US are notable as exceptions. This paper…