SuperSTAR now at Department for Work and Pensions, UK

Data Responsiveness and Responsibility

Space-Time Research is pleased to announce that it is working with the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) in the United Kingdom towards improving the way Official Statistics on benefit claimants are published. As well as delivering a greatly enhanced customer experience the new system will realise resource savings in answering requests for statistics. Sophisticated data perturbation and disclosure control techniques will be used to ensure personal identity confidentiality of the DWP data.

Response to requests for benefit and other DWP statistics, including parliamentary questions, freedom of information requests, and departmental ad hoc statistical analysis, will be faster and more flexible. Users, such as local authorities and academics, will be able to use the self-service system to obtain detailed, local level statistics. The system will incorporate rich visualizations, allowing easy exploration of the statistics.

Currently most government data is made available in static pre-defined table format. The Department for Work and Pensions will be taking a leadership position in the use of machine readable formats for confidential data exchange. The system will enable DWP to take advantage of the data exchange standards such as Statistical Data and Metadata Exchange (SDMX) which is consistent with the UK Governments commitment to Open Data and Transparency.

Steven Hulse, CEO of Space-Time Research, said “Space-Time is proud to be working with the Department for Work and Pensions on this project. DWP has demonstrated responsiveness to their customers’ data requirements and consideration and attention to their responsibility for personal confidentiality, data standards and cost savings. The system they have designed will benefit the public, the government, and the Department”.

Department for Work and Pensions

The Department for Work and Pensions is responsible for welfare and pension policy and is a key player in tackling child poverty. It is the biggest public service delivery department in the UK and serves over 20 million customers. DWP supports the government’s commitment to being transparent about public finances.

Statistical Data and Metadata Exchange

SDMX is an initiative to foster standards for the exchange of statistical information. The SDMX sponsoring institutions are the Bank for International Settlements, the European Central Bank (ECB), Eurostat (the statistical office of the European Union), the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the United Nations Statistics Division, and the World Bank.

Space-Time Research

The SuperSTAR solution from Space-Time Research provides a metadata rich experience for the delivery of public data and Government 2.0 initiatives. SuperSTAR’s analytics and visualization products are used for webbased data and microdata dissemination combining confidentialisation and field-level security for advanced privacy protection. Space-Time Research is the first commercial supplier of software to support the SDMX and DDI 3.1 standards.

For further information, please get in touch.

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