About the Secure Research Service

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) Secure Research Service (SRS) is a Trusted Research Environment (TRE). It provides accredited or approved researchers with secure access to de-identified, unpublished data to deliver research for the public good.

The Secure Research Service (SRS) follows the Five Safes Framework. This framework gives assurance to data owners and the public that data are used safely. The Five Safes are:

• Safe people: trained and accredited researchers trusted to use data appropriately

• Safe projects: data are only used for ethical, valuable research that delivers public benefits

• Safe settings: access is only possible using secure technology and approved locations

• Safe data: data are de-identified before access

• Safe outputs: research outputs are checked to ensure they cannot identify data subjects

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has been accredited as a processor under the Digital Economy Act 2017 by the UK Statistics Authority for the provision of data for research purposes.

You must be an accredited or approved researcher to use the Secure Research Service (SRS).

If you would like to access our data, and are not already an accredited or approved researcher, then please follow the steps outlined in our Become an accredited researcher guidance.

Accessing the data securely

Projects can only be accessed from an approved safe setting.

For more detail on safe settings, see our Access the data securely page.

You can use the Secure Research Service (SRS) metadata catalogue to:

• find available datasets

• check any access restrictions, including requirements to use an approved safe setting

For initial log-in credentials or a password reset, call +44 1329 447871. The phone line is open from 9am to 11am and 1pm to 3pm.

Other trusted research environments

The SRS is one of several Trusted Research Environments (TREs) accredited under the Digital Economy Act 2017. Accreditation under the act can also enable access to other TREs.

You can view a List of Digital Economy Act Accredited Processing Environments on the UK Statistics Authority website.

For general questions and customer support, email srs.customer.support@ons.gov.uk.