Long term survey strategy: summary report and framework to support decision-making

Administrative data

There was a strong interest from some of the stakeholders interviewed for this report in the scope to make greater use of administrative data to enhance or, potentially, replace some of the data currently collected by the SHS, SCJS and SHeS. Administrative data is classified as data collected during interactions with public services, normally collected for reasons other than research. This can include education, health, and tax bodies, for example. It is covered in this research since, as discussed above, making greater use of administrative data is part of the wider set of potential changes that could be considered alongside mode redesign and – as noted in previous sections – mode design needs to be considered in the round, alongside other changes that are being considered, all of which will combine to determine the impact on survey quality and resources.

Changes to the legal basis for data linkage in the UK have opened up new opportunities to use administrative data as part of government surveys. Potential uses in relation to mixed mode surveys include:

• To inform sampling, for example, by adding individual or aggregate-level administrative data to PAF samples to support targeting or boosts.
• To inform contact and response mode strategies, for example by identifying areas or addresses that might require different contact, incentive or mode of interview strategies within a mixed mode design (although there are some limits to the usefulness of address-based administrative information in identifying target groups)
• To triangulate and quality assure – particularly in relation to helping assess nonresponse bias
• To extend or replace survey data – there was a clear aspiration among some experts and stakeholders to use administrative data in this way. However, it was also the area on which there was least consensus across expert interviewees as to the scope to go further than at present in the use of administrative data in the near future.

However, the literature and interviews with survey experts identified a range of challenges in using administrative data in practice, include:

• Data quality and completeness – missing data, incorrect records, duplicates etc.
• Relevance – given it is collected for a different purpose to data collected by surveys
• Data access – expert interviews indicated that significant practical barriers to accessing administrative data to support the uses noted above often remain.
• Ethics – although changes to the law mean it is possible to link administrative and survey data without consent, there was some concern about the potential ethics of doing so and the potential impact on initial opt outs from surveys, particularly if respondents were told that their data would be linked to more sensitive administrative data in future.