Population health surveys

The majority of data sets available to request from DARS contain data collected from health and social care settings, such as hospitals, clinics, pharmacies or community centres. The survey data set products have taken place with a representative sample of the population. Many of these surveys take place in respondents’ homes or via postal/online surveys and are much smaller (in terms of the number of records included) than national and mandated data collections.

NHS England commissions a range of public health surveys, which look into matters of people’s lifestyles, behaviours and choices that may have a lasting impact on their health. For each survey an official statistics publication is produced, which includes a report and excel data tables that highlight the key findings of the survey.

As of 1 April 2024, we have changed our processes which means you are no longer required to have a DARS Data Sharing Agreement (DSA) to access the following survey data set products:

• Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey (APMS) 
• Health Survey for England (HSE)
• Mental Health of Children and Young People

You will now solely liaise with UK Data Service to facilitate access to the data you require.

We have removed the above products from the product selection screen in DARS Online. 

All existing DSA’s and applications limited to any of the above products, for the purpose of requesting survey data set products only, will now be cancelled. You do not need to do anything further.

If you have a DSA or application which include the survey data sets and other additional DARS products, the requirement to have a DSA remains for the non-survey products. However, any references to the above survey data sets can be removed from your DSA or application. 

For those with active DSA’s, you do not need to do anything right now, this can be actioned at the point of your next renewal, amendment or extension.

Population Health survey datasets are deposited in the UK Data Service Repository and are available in standardised, pre-defined formats (usually SPSS, STATA or TAB outputs).

However, some of our health surveys, due to the sensitive nature of the data they contain, are available subject to the UKDS Special User Licence (SUL) Agreement which needs users to meet a number of special criteria, including completing an application that needs to be approved by the data owner, before access to the data will be given.

The expanders below indicate the type of access request applicable to specific surveys, the years the survey was conducted and any additional restrictions.

Non-standard versions of those data sets can also be requested, subject to the appropriate justification and legal bases.

These can be:

• survey data linked to another NHS England asset(s)
• bespoke version of the data, with additional variables or derivations for example
• requests for right to re-contact survey respondents to take part in another research project (project area must be related to original survey)
• requests for serum samples (part of HSE)

All requests for non-standard data are subject to DARS applications and approvals. Non-standard versions of the data are disseminated as extracts, but the production timescales for those are longer and should be discussed individually with your case officer.

For more information about accessing non-standard versions of survey data please contact the Surveys Team with an overview of your requirements at [email protected].