Giving research access to official microdata through the facilities of a National Statistical Institute: INE in Portugal Jose A. PINTO MARTINS - D ISSEMINATION U NIT Ana PINTO - L EGAL U NIT 16 & 17 october 2014 Athens, Greece Second Regional Workshop - Microdata Access in European Countries Cooperation between National Statistical Institutes and Data Archives

AccreditationProtocol S TATE L AW 22/2008, 13 TH M AY

State Law nº 22/2008, 13 May (principles, rules and structure of National Statistical System - NSS) Art. 6 - Statistical confidentiality 2 — All individual statistical data collected by statistical authorities are confidential General context Legal framework (1/3)

Art. 6 - Statistical confidentiality 7 — … shall only be supplied for SCIENTIFIC PURPOSES, if ANONYMISED, upon an AGREEMENT signed between the statistical authority supplying the data and the entity requesting them... 8 — Requests …a specific scientific project, by researchers in universities or other legally recognized higher education institutions and scientific investigation organizations, …recognized as pursuing scientific purposes… Legal framework (2/3) Scientific purposes

P URPOSE P URPOSE - Scientific purposes and within the scope of a specific scientific project by researchers from: Universities and other higher education institutions Other scientific investigation organizations, officially recognized as having purposes of scientific research C HARACTERISTICS OF DATA RELEASED C HARACTERISTICS OF DATA RELEASED – Anonymised F ORMALIZATION F ORMALIZATION - An agreement signed between the Statistics Portugal and researcher(s), defining the technical and organizational measures deemed necessary to ensure the protection of confidential data and avoid any risk of illicit dissemination or use for other purposes. State Law 22/2008 – establishes the Legal conditions for access by researchers to individual statistical data: Legal framework (3/3)

F ROM L EGAL CONDITIONS TO PRACTICAL ASPECTS - COOPERATION (1) The applying process is based on three pillars: A CCREDITATION External to Statistics Portugal (based on Protocol with DGEEC and FCT, both entities of the Ministry of Education and Science, responsible for conducting and funding research in PT) R EQUEST Assessment by Statistics Portugal making data available (anonymised or in Secure environment) AGREEMENT Signed between Statistics Portugal and the researcher establishing conditions of use and sanctions

S UBJECT – E STABLISHES THE COOPERATION FORMS BETWEEN THREE PARTNERS regarding conditions of access to statistical individual anonymised data in respect to art. 6º, n. 7 and 8 of NSS State Law 22/2008, 13 th May. S COPE – Researchers from universities or other higher education institutions legally recognized and organizations, institutions or departments of scientific research recognized as such by the MES. T HE P ROTOCOL (1) (responsible for ACCREDITATION ) DGEEC FCT Statistics Portugal (Provides access to databases/microdata)

Accreditation Request = Form + statement of commitment ( 1/researcher) The Accreditation Request should be fully filled, signed and stamped, presented to DGEEC. Submission by webform will be available soon. P ROTOCOL From the P ROTOCOL (established cooperation) ACCREDITATION ( – to ACCREDITATION ( cooperation in action) Accreditation Request Accreditation granted Availability and support Accreditation flow →

Each researcher involved in the request must also sign a statement of commitment (binding each researcher to statistical secrecy) Accreditation form

ACCREDITATION validity Valid during the length declared for the research project Valid only for data identified as being directly related to the accreditation request that gave rise to the credential. The request for accreditation is associated with the obligatory signing of the Code of Conduct for the use of statistical data by the applicant and the research institution under the law (duty of confidentiality, of not replicate data, the conditions of security of the data, the obligation of destruction the data after usage and liability questions)

Accreditation – Who is a researcher? (1/4)

Accreditation – Who is a researcher? (2/4)

Accreditation – Who is a researcher? (3/4)

Accreditation – Who is a researcher? (4/4)

1 – Statistical databases (anonymised for researchers use) 2 – Specific results / taylor-made sets of anonymised data (exceptionally) 3 - Safe centre (exceptionally) (directly on the individual databases without direct identification of statistical units)  all outputs are checked before release; final information does not contain any direct or indirect identification of the units referred to 4 – Remote access (not yet implemented) (Available) A CCESS M ODES

Cooperation in action? Accreditation Request Accreditation granted Availability and support Accreditation flow →

Our “statistics” (1/4)

Researchers and Requests Average (Researchers/Request ) ~ 2 Our “statistics” (2/4)

Our “statistics” (3/4)

Our “statistics” (4/4)

Access to confidential data for scientific purposes is a priority for INE and for the use of Official statistics because many questions – economic, social, environmental and political sciences – can be answered adequately on the basis of relevant and detailed data allowing in-depth analyses; Wider access to confidential data for scientific work without compromising the high level of protection is beneficial to statistics; The experience and needs from researchers are relevant for improving accessibility of confidential data; Our commitment is providing good information. Researchers responsibility is the use of data in full respect for the fundamental Principle of Statistical Confidentiality. Conclusions And …

From our GOOD experience, COOPERATION for this specific purpose is an advantage; it allows, namely, split and share responsibilities' among parties with specific knowledge, and definitely rendering the system more efficient. Conclusions Cooperation in action? YES

Thank you for your attention! Questions? Second Regional Workshop - Microdata Access in European Countries Cooperation between National Statistical Institutes and Data Archives