Data policies

Data policies are statements of intent that describe what we will do to ensure we comply with the Data Principles. They play a vital part in ensuring that the Office for National Statistics (ONS) manages and governs its data estate effectively.

The ONS is currently working to review its data policies. A number of these policies are in the process of being drafted and reviewed, and they will be published later in 2021. These data policies will cover subjects such as data linkage and matching, open data, archiving, and statistical data retention and disposal.

The following data policies have been published by the ONS:

• Collecting and using health data
• Collecting and using social media for statistics and statistical research policy
• Collecting and using special category data for official statistics and statistical research
• Data Acquisition policy
• Data archiving policy
• Data ethics policy
• Data linkage and matching policy
• Data protection
• Data sharing policy
• Data standards policy
• De-identification policy
• Managing identifiable data
• Metadata policy
• ONS SRS research and data access policy
• Social media data policy
• Statistical data retention and disposal policy
• Statistical disclosure control
• Synthetic data policy
• Web scraping policy