Digital Economy Act 2017 - Consultation Regarding Proposed Changes to Research Accreditation Criteria

Section 64 of the Digital Economy Act 2017 (the Act) permits the disclosure of information held by public authorities for the purpose of conducting research in the public interest. The Act requires that all persons involved in the processing or use of information under this gateway are accredited. The Research Accreditation Panel is the body responsible for overseeing this accreditation process on behalf of the UK Statistics Authority (the Authority) and are required to publish a set of criteria (the Criteria) individuals, organisations, and research projects must meet.   

Since its introduction, Section 64 of the Act has been successful in enabling research in support of the public interest. For instance, this legislation has accredited more than 6400 researchers to work in 12 accredited processing environments on nearly 1300 accredited projects. However, the current version of the Criteria are over five years old, and with the changes happening across the research community, society and technology, the Authority needs to be satisfied that the tools used to govern research accreditation are still up to date and relevant. 

Last year, the Authority conducted a review of the Criteria for processors, researchers, and research projects. This review invited stakeholders to give their feedback on the Criteria via survey and focus groups. Following this review, the Authority have updated the Criteria to incorporate stakeholder feedback.  

In this consultation, you are invited to answer five questions regarding the revised Criteria.