Back to Tools and guidance

What is the Five Safes Framework?

By Research Data Scotland (RDS)

This resource provides an overview of the Five Safes framework (a set of principles designed to ensure safe and secure access to data for researchers) and provides further detail on each of the components.

  • Safe People
  • Safe projects
  • Safe Settings
  • Safe Data
  • Safe Outputs

Originally developed by the Office for National Statistics and other data providers in the 2010s, the framework enables data providers to deliver controlled access to data.

This resource provides a simple explanation for each of the safes and describes how they are implemented by data providers.

Supporting PEDRI’s Good Practice Standard 2: Data literacy and training.