Changing Laws in the UK: The New Statistics and Registration Services Act

This paper will outline the new UK Statistics and Registration Services Act, giving details of the new legislative framework, and examining how the Act affects the status of research data users. The Act is the first of its kind in the UK and has led to the creation of the independent UK Statistics Authority, and has made researcher access to data a statutory function of the Office for National Statistics. The paper will also look at the opportunities this might present for improving researcher access to data.