What is a Secure Data Environment?
When comparing different data research services across the UK you will commonly see these terms:
- Secure Data Environment
- Trusted Research Environment
- Data Safe Haven
These terms all refer to research services with a common set of key features:
- A process for scrutinising applications to ensure that the use of data is in the public interest.
- A process for ensuring researchers are appropriately trained to access data safely.
- Through these services researchers can only access data which has been de-personalised to protect confidentiality.
- Researchers are provided with a secure computing environment to access data, along with commonly used tools for carrying out analysis.
- The detailed data that researchers’ access cannot be exported from the environment.
- Outputs from the environment are checked before they can be released to the researchers, these will typically be graphs and tables through which no individual person can be identified and are safe for release and publication.
While the secure computing environment is a key feature, a range of additional services are also provided. These include end to end support for resarchers through the application process, data management and output checking.
The 5 Safes Framework
The processes described above are part of what is known as the 5 Safes Framework, this is a globally used framework for operating secure research services.
The UK Data Service provide similar functions to the Honest Broker Service through their Secure Lab, they have provided an excellent video showing how the Five Safe Framework operates.
What is the Five Safes framework? — UK Data Service
Why say Secure Data Environment vs Trusted Research Environment?
The term Trusted Research Environment became popular during the COVID-19 Pandemic however the recommended term to describe these services is now Secure Data Environment.
Since the pandemic, a number of public engagements have been run around use of health data and these have all generally agreed that the term Secure Data Environment better describes the processes and services.
The public feedback also indicated that labelling a service as Trusted doesn’t necessarily imply that the public will trust it – the services need to demonstrate they can be trusted through accountability and transparency in processing.
We are now referring to the Honest Broker Service as the Secure Data Environment (SDE) for Health and Social Care in Northern Ireland and this is likely to be seen across the UK as the main term used.
However, the term Trusted Research Environment has already become very widespread so a lot of the literature and web content relating to services like this still use the term TRE.
Resources:
Secure Data Environments (SDEs) – Data saves lives – NHS Transformation Directorate (england.nhs.uk)
What are Trusted Research Environments? (researchdata.scot)
Better, broader, safer: using health data for research and analysis – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
TRE Services across the UK:
Secure Research Service – Office for National Statistics (ons.gov.uk)