Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what are the reasons for the time taken to publish the 2014 Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey in the UK Data Archive; and when he expects an approval system for researchers to apply for access to data in that archive to be implemented.

The 2014 Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey (APMS) in the UK Data Archive was published on 29 September 2016. As the APMS data was identified as containing particularly sensitive data, additional technical disclosure control measures were considered necessary by the NHS Digital Disclosure Control Panel to minimise the risk of re-identification. The complexity of these requirements and the rigorous level of testing required given the sensitivity of the data have resulted in the delays to making the dataset available for secondary use.

A version of the APMS 2014 dataset has been transferred to the UK Data Service, and researchers are now able to apply for access using the NHS Digital on-line Data Access Request Service available at.

https://dataaccessrequest.hscic.gov.uk/