Equalities Protected Characteristics Dataset

Learn how we're working with partners to create a large-scale research dataset of protected characteristics.

Equalities Protected Characteristics Dataset

Research Data Scotland (RDS) has been collaborating with Public Health Scotland (PHS), the Scottish Government, National Records of Scotland (NRS) and the University of Edinburgh on a project to create a large-scale research dataset of protected characteristics to support public sector organisations and researchers to monitor the impact of services.

This dataset contains anonymised records covering many of the protected characteristics for more than six million people and used a method of securely linking records drawn from the Census, hospital admissions and annual school pupil census. Ethical considerations in the design of the dataset were assessed with help from equalities groups and a public panel.

Learn more in this blog post: Equality data - mind the gap

Dataset security

Safe and responsible use of the dataset is paramount, and the data is stored within the Scottish National Safe Haven, a Trusted Research Environment. Under the Administrative Data Research (ADR) Scotland programme and the Health Data Research National Core Studies programme, a significant number of datasets have been brought into the National Safe Haven. The Protected Characteristics Linkage Dataset has been brought into the National Safe Haven as part of the ADR Scotland data catalogue.

Further information

If you are a researcher or member of a public sector organisation interested in using the dataset to support your work on equalities, please contact us to register your interest. Please note the dataset is currently only available for a proof of concept study. RDS will support researchers to determine whether their study qualifies as a proof of concept project. Further engagement and work on the dataset will take place - updates will be posted on this page and shared in the RDS newsletter