Consultation outcome

Privacy notice

Updated 24 June 2021

The following is to explain your rights and give you the information you are entitled to under the Data Protection Act 2018 and the General Data Protection Regulation (‘the Data Protection Legislation’). This notice only refers to your personal data (for example your name, email address, and anything that could be used to identify you personally) not the content of your response to the survey. Your personal data is collected by responding to questions in the consultation which relate to details that could identify you personally.

The identity of the data controller and contact details of our Data Protection Officer

The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) and the Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) are the data controllers. The DCMS Data Protection Officer is the main point of contact and can be reached at dcmsdataprotection@dcms.gov.uk. The DHSC Data Protection Officer can be contacted at data_protection@dhsc.gov.uk. You can visit the DCMS website and DHSC website to find out more about how DCMS and DHSC use and protect your information.

Why we are collecting your personal data

Your personal data is being collected as an essential part of the consultation process, so that we can contact you regarding your response and for statistical purposes such as to ensure individuals cannot complete the survey more than once.

The Data Protection Legislation states that, as a government department, DCMS and DHSC may process personal data as necessary for the effective performance of a task carried out in the public interest ie a consultation.

With whom we will be sharing your personal data

Copies of responses may be published after the survey closes. If we do so, we will ensure that neither you nor the organisation you represent are identifiable, and any response used to illustrate findings will be anonymised. SurveyOptic is the online survey platform used to conduct this survey. They will store the data in accordance with DCMS and DHSC instructions and their privacy policy can be found here.

If you want the information that you provide to be treated as confidential, please be aware that, under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA), there is a statutory Code of Practice with which public authorities must comply and which deals, among other things, with obligations of confidence. In view of this, it would be helpful if you could explain to us why you regard the information you have provided as confidential. If we receive a request for disclosure of the information, we will take full account of your explanation, but we cannot give an assurance that confidentiality can be maintained in all circumstances. An automatic confidentiality disclaimer generated by your IT system will not, of itself, be regarded as binding on DCMS or DHSC.

For how long we will keep your personal data, or criteria used to determine the retention period

Your personal data will be held for three years after the survey is closed. This is so that DCMS and DHSC are able to contact you regarding the result of the survey following analysis of the responses. If you agree to be contacted and receive information about other consultations, your personal data will be stored for email marketing purposes. You can opt-out of this ay any time.

Your rights, for example access, rectification, erasure

The data we are collecting is your personal data, and you have considerable say over what happens to it. You have the right:

  • to see what data we have about you
  • to ask us to stop using your data, but keep it on recor
  • to have all or some of your data deleted or corrected
  • to lodge a complaint with the independent Information Commissioner if you think we are not handling your data fairly or in accordance with the law

You can contact the ICO, or telephone 0303 123 1113. ICO, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire SK9 5AF.

Additional notifications

Further to the above, you should also be aware of the following:

  • your personal data will not be sent outside the Eurpean Economic Area (EEA)
  • your personal data will not be used for any automated decision making
  • your personal data will be stored in a secure Government IT system and the SurveyOptic server