ADR UK (Administrative Data Research UK) is a partnership transforming the way researchers access the UK’s wealth of public sector data, to enable better informed policy decisions that improve people’s lives. By linking together data held by different parts of government, and by facilitating safe and secure access for accredited researchers to these newly joined-up data sets, ADR UK is creating a sustainable body of knowledge about how our society and economy function – tailored to give decision makers the answers they need to solve important policy questions. ADR UK is made up of three national partnerships (ADR Scotland, ADR Wales, and ADR NI) and the Office for National Statistics (ONS), which ensures data provided by UK government bodies is accessed by researchers in a safe and secure form with minimal risk to data holders or the public. The partnership is coordinated by a UK-wide Strategic Hub, which also promotes the benefits of administrative data research to the public and the wider research community, engages with UK government to secure access to data, and manages a dedicated research budget. ADR UK is funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), part of UK Research and Innovation. To find out more, visit adruk.org or follow @ADR_UK on Twitter. Data First is an ambitious data-linking programme led by the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) and funded by ADR UK (Administrative Data Research UK). It aims to harness the potential of the wealth of data already created by MoJ, by linking administrative datasets from across the justice system and beyond, and enabling researchers within government as well as approved academics – to access the data in an ethical and responsible way. By working in partnership with independent and expert academics to facilitate and promote research in the justice space, Data First will create a sustainable body of knowledge on justice system users and their interactions with government and across the family, civil and criminal courts, to provide evidence to underpin the development of government policies and drive real progress in tackling social and justice problems.

Administrative data has the potential to open new and invaluable research opportunities to better understand societal phenomena and support evidence-based policy-making. One research area administrative data can significantly enhance is the analysis of life-course trajectories across key domains of interest to social scientists, including education, economic activity, health, and crime. Administrative data is a rich source of longitudinal information on key socio-economic outcomes and public services use that can be particularly useful for policy-relevant analysis. Yet, in the UK, it has been relatively untapped so far. As administrative data and administrative linked data becomes increasingly available to researchers, it is essential that research teams, both in academia or in government, are equipped with the appropriate methodological tool kit to take full advantage of the research possibilities these data offer. In this bid, the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) proposes to collaborate with the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) to address this challenge: we propose a package of activities to advance the use of machine learning techniques to exploit the richness of MoJ's administrative and linked administrative datasets as sources of information on individuals' offending and educational trajectories and their journeys through the justice system. These activities include: a) Innovative research investigating the nature and drivers of offenders' trajectories and how these are shaped by the justice system, by applying, for the first time, sequence analysis methods in UK administrative and administrative linked data. b) A secondment of an IFS researcher to the MoJ to ensure the co-production and policy relevance of the research, enhance MoJ's analytical capability, and strengthen exchange of ideas and knowledge between the two institutions. c) A training workshop led by an international expert in sequence analysis methods to build research capability, within research institutions and government, in the use of machine learning techniques for administrative data analysis. d) A research workshop at the end of the grant for researchers from the IFS and other institutions, as well as analysts and policy-makers from MoJ and other relevant departments, to present and discuss current research using machine learning methods in administrative data. The project team, led by Professor Imran Rasul, Professor of Economics at University College London and IFS' Research Director, has a strong track record of academic and policy work based on UK and international administrative data. By establishing the viability of these methods in UK administrative linked data and demonstrating their usefulness to better understand individuals' journeys through public service systems, the research will make significant contributions to life-course studies conducted across the social sciences. The research will produce at least two academic outputs, accompanied by non-technical, policy-oriented briefs. The team's collaboration with MoJ, as well as the IFS' well-established links with policy-makers and the media, will ensure that these outputs are well disseminated beyond academia and used to inform the policy-making process.

In the aftermath of the 2011 UK riots, Justice Secretary Kenneth Clarke described the rioters as a 'feral underclass, cut off from the mainstream', and blamed the riots on the 'broken penal system - one whose record in preventing reoffending has been straightforwardly dreadful'. Reoffending or recidivism is key to the operation of the repetitive cycle of incarceration, re-entry, re-offending and re-incarceration, and represents a major policy challenge. In the UK, 75% of ex-inmates reoffend within nine years of release, and 39.3% within the first twelve months. Clarke's solution as set out in the government's "Breaking the Cycle" Green Paper is 'payment by results'; a 'radical and decentralising reform' with 'freedom to innovate' new interventions, opening 'the market to new providers from the private, voluntary and community sectors'. This project draws attention to prison visitation as an aspect of imprisonment which has already been demonstrated to improve the outcomes of released prisoners, but whose specific functionality is at present poorly understood. Through parallel methodologies, this project investigates the relationship between visitation and recidivism. This interdisciplinary project provides a new perspective on prison visitation and its relationship to the highly topical issue of recidivism in the UK. Macro-level statistical analysis in parallel with innovative mixed-methods research into visiting facilities will identify the nature of this relationship and its socio-spatial context, informing policy towards visitation and the design of visiting spaces, and contributing to broader debates about prisoner rehabilitation and resettlement. Research into studying recidivism finds that prison visitation is a significant factor in improving post-release outcomes; outcomes are in general much more positive for visited prisoners, and lower recidivism rates have been demonstrated across study populations and time periods. However, although the effect is widely observed, the causality is poorly understood. It is presumed that the maintenance of personal relationships and the feeling of 'connectedness' to home and community which may arise through visitation smooth reintegration after release, but this process has never been fully explored. The processes underlying persistent criminal careers remain a research gap, and very little is known about psychological change in relation to prison visits in terms of the psychological constructs which may mediate the relationship between visits and recidivism. In order to analyse the relationship between visitation and recidivism in the UK, the project uses national level statistics from the Ministry of Justice and the Police National Computer, with analysis carried out in conjunction with Ministry of Justice Analytical Services, and also explores the experience of visitation 'on the ground' in a West Midlands prison, investigating the ways in which prisoners, visitors and prison personnel experience prison visits; specifically the psychological effects of visitation, and the ways in which spatial context affects the kind of contact which takes place between prisoners and visitors. The project will uniquely generate both the most nuanced insights yet produced into the relationship between prison visitation and recidivism, and also critical insights into the socio-spatial context of prison visiting, to inform visitation policy and the design of more effective prison visiting spaces. It seizes an opportunity to influence policy and create impact, at a time when the the coalition government is consulting on policy reform, in particular in relation to recidivism. It represents convergence of cutting-edge debates in cognate disciplines of human geography, criminology, psychology and wider social theory, and resonates with policy development in individual prison institutions in the UK in the context of the 'Breaking the Cycle' initiative.

As many as 1 in 54 people are autistic (CDC, 2020). Autism is a lifelong developmental disability diagnosed based on difficulties in social communication and interaction, as well as restricted and repetitive behaviours and interests (which includes sensory sensitivities). Autistic people may be seven times more likely to become involved with the Criminal Justice System (CJS) as a victim/witness or a suspect/defendant. Our previous research has shown that autistic people are among the most vulnerable entering the CJS, their experiences are largely negative, and police interviewing techniques need to be adapted to support differences in how autistic people remember and report events. Yet there is very little research on autistic people's experiences at court, despite there being several reasons to suspect that courtroom proceedings may be especially challenging for this group (e.g., the adversarial nature of cross-examination, and stress and sensory sensitivities that may be triggered in courtroom environments). To enable fair access to justice, it is important to understand the impact of standard courtroom proceedings, including cross-examination, on autistic people and their ability to provide their best evidence. It is also important to test how useful and effective 'Special Measures' (SMs) are in supporting autistic people in court. This may include the assistance of a trained professional called a Registered Intermediary to support communication, and the use of video technology to allow evidence to be provided remotely, by pre-recording or both. SMs can be expensive and time consuming, yet we know relatively little about how helpful they are for autistic people. In our research, we will work with the autistic and legal communities in a series of innovative work packages (WPs) collecting both quantitative and qualitative data. We will identify key issues that autistic individuals experience at court, test the utility of SMs, and co-create training and guidance for legal professionals to enable them to better support autistic people at court. In WP1, we will explore the lived experiences, views and perceptions of autistic people who have been through the court system, via surveys, interviews and focus groups, as well as a 'participative walkthrough' of a simulated trial. Findings will be used to refine our experimental work in WP2 to provide the first empirical test of the impact of cross-examination (with and without SMs) in autistic adults. Our focus will be on the quality, accuracy, relevance, and perceived credibility of autistic adults' accounts, as well as on their overall experiences (including state anxiety and emotional regulation). Informed by findings from WPs 1 and 2, in WP3 we will develop, evaluate, and refine an interactive training package for legal professionals and a resource of autistic people, in collaboration with these user groups. Many of the adaptations that are effective for autistic people will likely be beneficial for everyone. Findings will have implications for the autistic community (as well as those with other conditions such as ADHD, intellectual disability, and anxiety disorders), legal professionals, the family courts, social workers, and policy makers. Findings will also have implications internationally (e.g., the Witness Intermediary Scheme has been used as a model for similar initiatives in Northern Ireland and Australia, with further interest from Canada, New Zealand, and South Africa); and for the family courts, where SMs are incorporated into hearings. An extensive program of academic and non-academic collaboration and dissemination has been developed to maximise the research impact with a broad range of key users, with input from the National Autistic Society, Autistica, the MoJ, and Judiciary, as well as members of the autistic community, police, solicitors, barristers, judges, intermediaries, and family and criminal court representatives (see letters of support).

Security systems break because design practices focus too much on mechanisms, at the expense of clearly-defined properties. The vision of this research is to bring about a shift of emphasis to highlight the properties that security systems are expected to provide. This will be done by developing methods for verification of security systems. I will focus on a selection of interconnected real-world problems that are of great importance to society, but that are currently in need of greater industry/academe cooperation. The combination of fundamental research with close collaboration with industry, government and users is expected to achieve significant results and impact. I will develop and apply new methods and techniques to create and analyse solutions in three areas:* Trusted computing is an industry-led technology that aims to root security in hardware. Since its launch, academics including me have discovered significant issues that threaten to undermine its potential at providing a range of security benefits. This has arisen because industry does not have the expertise to analyse the protocols.* Electronic voting is an application currently attracting significant interest from government and industry, but numerous security issues have resulted in failure of confidence among politicians, commentators and public alike.* Privacy for citizens using electronic services is hotly debated by journalists and user groups and politicians, but has been substantially eroded by new technologies and policies.In these three areas, there is currently the risk of significant waste of resources on inappropriate or unaccepted technologies, resulting in user disempowerment and exclusion. The outcomes of this fellowship are intended to address that risk.A distinguishing feature of the proposal is the substantial engagement with industry and user groups that are active in these three areas. As a result of discussions with them, several organisations have committed significant resources, including cash contribution, manager and developer time, and access to users and experts.