Using Data from Third Parties for Research and Statistics: High-Level Ethics Checklist

This high-level checklist is designed to guide researchers and analysts through some key points that will need to be considered prior to accessing data that has been collected by, or sourced from, third party organisations.

• From: Government Digital Service
• Published: 29 January 2025

• Ethical theme: Safety, Security and Robustness, Appropriate Transparency and Explainability, Accountability and Governance and Societal Wellbeing
• Organisation: UK Statistics Authority
• Project phase: Planning
• Technology area: Data

Description

This high-level checklist is designed to guide researchers and analysts through some key points that will need to be considered prior to accessing data that has been collected by, or sourced from, third party organisations. This may include data from other government departments, commercial organisations or other institutions.

• It is not expected that you will be able to answer these questions alone, but you should work with colleagues specialising in data protection, legal services and data acquisition within your organisation to ensure that you have adequately considered all of these aspects and can demonstrate appropriate ethical considerations in the use of third party data for research and statistics.
• This checklist should be used in conjunction with the existing UK Statistics Authority ethics self-assessment tool and provides a basis to identify the different subject matter experts that you will need to engage with prior to accessing third party data. It establishes a foundation for discussion with these various colleagues (e.g., data acquisition teams, data protection teams, legal teams, data ethics teams) to ensure that the data that we use and access has been collected, stored and shared in line with the UK Statistics Authority’s ethical principles.

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Published 29 January 2025