Symposium: UK Longitudinal Linkage Collaboration (UKLLC): unlocking health and socio-economic data linkages for our CLS partner studies and the research community

The UK Longitudinal Linkage Collaboration: the UK’s national Trusted Research Environment for record linkage in the longitudinal research community (Andy Boyd, University of Bristol)

UK LLC is the UK’s national Trusted Research Environment (TRE) for the centralised curation, integration and linkage of data from Longitudinal Population Studies (LPS). UK LLC enables new scientific opportunities by securely linking study data with participants’ routine health, socio-economic and environmental records, while providing efficient access, robust governance and transparent public safeguards. UK LLC hosts data from 24 partner LPS and 570,000 participants: including NSHD46, NCDS58, BCS70, Next Steps, MCS and ELC Feasibility Study. LPS data are linked to comprehensive NHS health records, HM Revenue & Customs/Department of Work & Pensions employment, earnings and benefit records. Data can be analysed for a single study, cross-study comparisons or as a pooled dataset. The TRE is a remotely accessible Windows system, hosting a wide range of software (SATA, SPSS, R). Access to UK LLC is via a single form (https://apply.ukllc.ac.uk/) and data are free to use in most cases. The data are described in a comprehensive catalogue and documentation system (https://guidebook.ukllc.ac.uk/). This talk will introduce UK LLC, focusing on linked CLS data resources and user experience.

Longitudinal studies linked with participants’ HMRC & DWP records: a long-sought-after capability for UK LPS (Emma Turner, University of Bristol)

UK LLC has agreements with HMRC and DWP to link and host the employment, earnings and benefits records of participants of partner Longitudinal Population Studies’ (LPS) via the Office for National Statistics and ADR UK. These linked data will be integrated with participants self-reported data (e.g., surveys, assessments, genetics) and linked NHS and environmental records within the UK LLC TRE. The Office for National Statistics are currently linking eight initial LPS studies (including the UK’s representative birth cohorts, Understanding Society and cohorts such as ALSPAC and Next Steps), with data due to be integrated into UK LLC in summer 2026. We will report linkage rates and quality metrics, including descriptive statistics for linked/unlinked participants by cohort. We will also discuss the findings of our expert “early adopter” group of researchers who are collaborating with UK LLC to develop a detailed understanding and documentation and to co-developed a “research ready” data resource. For example, the development of a standard set of derived indicators. We will summarise the available data and user support tools such as derived variables and documentation resources. 

A DWP perspective: how linked longitudinal research can inform DWP “Areas of Research Interest” (Mike Daly, Department for Work and Pensions)

This linkage of HMRC and DWP records with CLS and wider studies represents a long-held ambition. The unique combination of study, socio-economic and health data hosted at UK LLC aligns with DWP objectives to develop its evidence base to inform policy decisions and Government “missions”. We discuss the latest DWP Areas of Research Interest, as well as our Evidence and Evaluation Strategy, and how our research plans support broader Departmental objectives, and the ideas and plans set out in the Get Britain Working White Paper, the Keep Britain Working Review and elsewhere. We discuss how linked LPS data can inform policy evaluations and development: providing a new lens on identifying potential intervention points relating to workforce participation. We see specific potential here given the detailed self-report data on job role, workplace experiences and barriers to work. DWP have long recognised the insights that different disciplines and methods provide and are excited that these CLS linkages provide a new perspective, complementing whole population resources (e.g. LEO, ONS Secure Research Service). We keen to explore how to facilitate uptake of research using this new resource.

New research opportunities unlocked by UK LLC, including linkage to HMRC and DWP records (Claire Crawford, UCL)

UK LLC is establishing systematic linkages across LPS studies and for the first time unlocking critical datasets such as GP records and HMRC/DWP data. This opens the potential for linkage informed research at scale, including between administrative datasets not otherwise available together. We will discuss use cases for linked survey-admin data in general, and for the link between LPS and HMRC/DWP data in particular. These include:

  • The ability to quality assure/cross reference between similar measures captured in survey and admin data, e.g. earnings
  • From a LPS perspective, the ability to consider outcomes and/or covariates that would not otherwise be available, e.g. detailed benefit receipt information (including type and amount
  • From an admin data perspective, the ability to provide insight into the drivers of associations found in the whole population in richer LPS data.
  • The ability to construct detailed economic activity histories, enabling us to build more complete pictures of cohort members’ lives between data collection sweeps.

Specific exemplar research projects will be discussed, including opportunities and challenges associated with linked data.