Airwave and the UK Longitudinal Linkage Collaboration (UK LLC)
The Study has been invited to take part in the UK Longitudinal Linkage Collaboration (“UK LLC”) which aims to create a national research resource for both scientific discoveries and to support the translation of those into NHS practice.
The UK LLC has been built and is run entirely through a collaboration of UK Universities, the NHS, and the Office for National Statistics. It brings together de-personalised study data from over twenty research studies which will provide a rich source of data to investigate environmental and genetic influences on future health including COVID-19, cancer, heart disease, diabetes, dementia, and mental health.
It will be kept up to date as time goes on using data obtained from participants’ NHS health records. As with all Airwave Study data, we appreciate the critical importance of ensuring the security and protection of participants’ data. The data in LLC are held in a Trusted Research Environment (TRE) run by the University of Bristol. This is a computer system where approved researchers can access and study data in a way that safeguards participants’ data. The TRE stores all data in the UK and researchers cannot remove data from the system. Its security is checked by NHS and ISO27001 professional auditors, ensuring it meets the global standard of security that the Airwave data are already held in by Imperial College.
Airwave and the Police Federation will continue to control who can use your data for what purposes in the UK LLC.
You can find out more about the UK LLC at https://ukllc.ac.uk/faq/, and there is a short video available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFkvpKD3jvs. Unless you tell us otherwise, we will include your data in UK LLC later this year, and there’s nothing else you need to do. If you don’t want your data to be included in UK LLC, please write to us at [email protected] or enter your information at https://police-health.net/apex/f?p=300 and we’ll ensure that your records are withheld.