The Samples of Anonymised Records

An Open Meeting on the Samples of Anonymised Records from the 2001 Census

Venue:	The Royal Statistical Society, Council Chamber, Errol Street, London
Date:	Thursday 30 September 2004

The first file from the 2001 SARs (the Individual SAR) has now been released by ONS to CCSR. The Household SAR and a Small Area Microdata file are planned for release early in 2005. This meeting will provide information on the content of the files and how to access them. A brief synopsis of SARs outputs is available.

The meeting will also provide an overview of the ONS protocol on data access and confidentiality and how it has been implemented for the SARs. A range of different methods of data access will be reviewed and discussed and users will be consulted on proposals for in-house access and remote access to a virtual lab.

Most documents will be available on the web before the meeting. Participants are strongly recommended to read them so that the amount of discussion time can be maximised.

10.00	Coffee and registration
10.30	Introduction to the day and welcome (background paper) Angela Dale, University of Manchester
10.40	The role of microdata in national statistics Len Cook, National Statistician Norman Caven, Registrar General for Northern Ireland Frank Thomas, General Register Office for Scotland Discussion and questions
11.15	The role of microdata in academic research Ian Diamond, Chief Executive, ESRC
11.40	Short break
11.50	A framework for implementing ONS’s Protocol on Data Access and Confidentiality Richard Laux, ONS Discussion and questions
12.30	The released (licensed) version of the 2001 SARs: an overview of the content and proposed revisions Jo Wathan, CCSR, University of Manchester Discussion and questions
1.00	Lunch
1.45	Methods used to ensure confidentiality in the SARs How was disclosure risk assessed? How well has it worked? How has perturbation been applied? What is the effect on data quality? (paper one, paper two, paper three) Bill Gross, Katherine Merrett and Philippe Guiblin, ONS Mark Elliot, CCSR, University of Manchester Discussion opened by Chris Skinner, University of Southampton
2.45	The Controlled Access Microdata Sample (in-house version of the SARs): what detail will be available, what are the procedures for access? Keith Whitfield, ONS Discussion
3.15	Tea
3.40	Access through a virtual microdata lab Felix Ritchie, ONS Discussion
4.10	Balancing the requirement for confidentiality with research access: A panel discussion What are the requirements for confidentiality? What are the options for meeting them? What guarantees can HEIs make? What is the role of the ESRC? Speakers from NSIs and ESRC will give short introductions and then the topic will be thrown open for discussion Panel members include Paul Jackson, Ian Diamond, Peter Elias, Norman Caven and Frank Thomas
5.00	End

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