News

Why new UK LLC linkages to Welsh participant data is great news for research 

Emma Turner

1st Jul 2025

In this blog, Emma Turner, UK LLC’s Senior Data Scientist and Research Fellow based at the University of Bristol, talks through the benefits of linking to Welsh NHS records available for research, as the latest data intake into the UK LLC Trusted Research Environment (TRE). 

NHS Wales data will be available in the UK LLC TRE for the first time. This is for all UK LLC partner Longitudinal Population Study (LPS) participants who have had interactions with the NHS in Wales, either as residents now or in the past, or through cross-border care or holidays.   

We have travelled a long road to get here, the result of many meetings and discussions to refine our application to the SAIL Information Governance Review Panel (IGRP), including NHS Wales, to be able to make this data available. It is safe to say we are more than thrilled to include Welsh NHS datasets as part of our data offering.  We actively promote the importance of diversity and inclusion in research, and expanding the NHS data we can provision beyond England is an incredibly important step in this process. We couldn’t have achieved this without support from our Swansea University collaborators. 

We now have permission from ethics regulators and NHS data owners to link UK LLC partner LPS participant data to their Welsh NHS records.     

Our partner LPS retain the decision-making process on whether or not their participants’ data is linked to other types of data. Decisions to link will be varied, as it depends on the permissions agreed between each LPS and their participants. As NHS Wales permissions are separate to those to link to NHS England data, we needed to submit a separate, comprehensive application to the IGRP where we outlined the purpose and benefits. 

Why this is an important step 

Obtaining Welsh NHS data is an important step in creating a holistic NHS dataset covering LPS participants across the whole of the UK. It will result in information that is more comprehensive and provide a clearer and more rounded picture of the health and wellbeing of those individuals.  To further increase the holistic offering, we are also working hard to obtain linked NHS Scotland and Northern Ireland data.  

The full list of datasets is available on UK LLC Guidebook 

Enabling research into four nation policy comparisons 

Being able to access pan-national data will enable research into comparisons to policy that differs across the four nations.  As an example, researchers could look at questions related to access to universal free prescriptions in Wales and compare them to the model in England where sub-groups qualify for free prescriptions. There are so many exciting scientific opportunities presented by analysing differences across the UK, as well as the potential to inform policy. 

And it doesn’t stop there. Having Welsh and English NHS data available in the TRE allows for more than cross-country analyses comparing experiences in Wales and England and potentially informing evidence-based policy decisions. They also ensure electronic health records for participants who have lived, worked or interacted with the NHS in Wales are more complete. This allows for events and periods of ill-health to be more comprehensively captured for our partner LPS participants. 

How to apply for these linked data

We are now keen to encourage UK-based researchers to apply for any of these linked data.  As in all cases, the research questions need to demonstrate it is in the public good, and the researcher will need to have ONS accredited researcher (AR) status.  

For anyone interested in applying, you can explore the data, read our data documentation and TRE user guide and when ready, apply!  

If you have a question for the UK LLC team, you can reach us at info@ukllc.ac.uk