Projects

Synthesising the linked 2011 Census and deaths dataset while preserving its confidentiality

This report offers a thorough look into how we created a synthetic version of a large, linked, and confidential dataset while adhering to a formal privacy framework

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The Longitudinal Business Database: Capturing the UK economy with new business microdata

The LBD is at its core a re-usable longitudinal data spine with each of its component providing the longitudinal link between business references. Data spine is a new concept.

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A data science approach to estimate the use of natural spaces: a feasibility study

We demonstrate the use of a range of freely available anonymised and aggregated novel datasets to estimate visitation counts to natural areas.

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Comparing international transport performance in urban centres: upcoming work

We are planning to follow up on previous work we published earlier this year looking at public transport availability across the UK, by providing metrics for urban centres across the UK, as well as their international counterparts.

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Guest blog: Enhancing open-access data analysis: introducing the Journey Time Statistics R and Python packages

In this guest blog, 10DS data science fellows Federico and Robin, talk about working with the Campus to create packages that import, process and visualise DfT’s journey time statistics data.

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Technical report: nowcasting UK household income using the new “signature” method

This report is part of a programme of work that the ONS has been doing with the Alan Turing Institute to explore the usefulness of various economic nowcasting methods, particularly the signature method.

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Helping decision makers understand the economy quickly through new methods

Nowcasting refers to generating estimates of the current (“now”) state of the economy.  We investigate how signature methods can be useful in the context of economic nowcasting

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Using open-source data to measure our engagement with the natural environment 

ONS Data Science Campus (DSC) and Defra’s Spatial Data Science team developed a novel solution for estimating the number of visitors to natural spaces across England.

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The use of microdata for firm-level analysis of preference tariff utilisation in the UK: technical report

We go behind our analysis on the use of microdata for the examination of preference tariff utilisation and take a deep dive into challenges of drawing together new administrative data sources to answer relevant policy questions.

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Using new shipping data to improve government understanding of trade flows

We show how shipping instructions can be used to map the trade routes of critical goods. This will help understand our reliance on global ports for accessing specific products, and draw insights on the impact of important events such as strikes.

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Using Sentinel-2 images to measure the change in tree coverage in eastern Uganda: what does it mean for the Mbale Trees Programme?

We used machine learning to develop a model to identify areas of trees from satellite images in eastern Uganda, where the Mbale Trees Programme has been running since 2010.

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Case study: responding to the coronavirus pandemic using aggregated BT mobility data

To support the national fight against coronavirus (COVID-19) in March 2020, BT made aggregate, anonymised mobility data available to the UK Government. We quickly turned this into daily updates, with only one day’s delay between activity and the reporting of it.

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Use of hybrid data to understand the community-level influences on coronavirus (COVID-19) incidence

Understanding and monitoring the major influences on COVID-19 infection numbers in communities is essential to inform policy making and evaluate the impact of non-pharmaceutical interventions. We have developed a community-level analysis by assembling a large set of static and dynamic data for England.

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Worker shortages: A window on labour demand during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic

The UK’s exit from the European Union created uncertainty about workers across a range of sectors, exacerbated by concerns over workers leaving the country and the impact on labour supply. The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic created additional and sudden changes, with sectors being affected heterogeneously and demand switching from services to goods.

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Employing data science to analyse the use of preferential tariffs in free trade agreements

Preference utilisation rates (PURs) measure the extent to which UK businesses make use of the zero or reduced tariffs available via free trade agreements (FTAs). In this work, we study the take-up of preferential tariffs by UK businesses between 2009 and 2019 and examine their trends and patterns.

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Using satellite imagery to report changes to water bodies for SDG 6.6.1

In this blog, we describe how we have assessed the quality of the novel Global Surface Water Explorer (GSWE) dataset to better understand its value and fitness-for-purpose, producing data to report the UK’s position on indicator 6.6.1.

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Exploring the value of social media data

Social media is such a key part of everyday life and with the data readily available online, it has the potential to change the way we collect information to understand society. However, it is paramount that data sources used in the production of official statistics are accurate, relevant, unbiased, and most importantly, they must be used ethically.

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