The data linkage concept is simply one manifestation of a growing recognition that ever increasing volumes of data, if ethically and competently linked and analysed, have the potential to bring many benefits. The Royal Statistical Society congratulates the Scottish Executive on this innovative approach to tackling the issues.

The Royal Statistical Society made three recommendations in response to the Royal Society of London’s recent consultation on Science as a Public Enterprise that are relevant to this consultation. These were:-
 

a)  Standards of data management need to be sufficiently high that research data can be shared for the public good – such as to create new discovery-potential;

b)  For transparency, national databases should have a publicly-available protocol which describes the data held, their regular analysis, and any approved record-linkages; and

c)  Better public understanding is needed about databases, their linkage, and value-added analyses.

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