Abstract

National Statistical Institutes and other organisations that manage access to confidential datasets are under continually increasing pressure to provide access to more data, more quickly, to researchers and the general public.

Flexible dissemination—the capability to create custom statistical outputs on demand for a user—has the potential to help statistical agencies to meet this demand, and dramatically increase the efficiency of the publication pipeline along with the public value derived from statistical datasets.

We present a case study of the implementation of a flexible dissemination service for the Office for National Statistics and the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency in the UK for use with both the England and Wales census and the Northern Irish census.

We cover some background to the project, the methodological and technical approach taken to statistical disclosure control, the architecture of the technical solution, some implementation challenges encountered along the way, and look forward to potential future applications.