Guidance

Privacy notice for Civil Service COVID-19 Pulse Survey

Published 11 May 2020

© Crown copyright 2020

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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/privacy-notice-for-civil-service-covid-19-pulse-survey/privacy-notice-for-civil-service-covid-19-pulse-survey

Please note: Cabinet Office and Qualtrics treat all data received through the COVID-19 Pulse Survey as personal data even though it is provided anonymously. That is because we gather sufficient information that in certain circumstances may make individuals identifiable if they have a unique set of characteristics that allows them to be picked out, and because individuals may disclose personal information when leaving a free-text comment within the survey (though they are instructed not to do so).

1. Your data

1.1 Purpose

The purpose for which we are processing your personal data is to understand the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on civil servants and to inform the response of Civil Service organisations, through a Pulse Survey. We are also using this as an opportunity to test the accessibility of the survey platform that will be used for the annual Civil Service People Survey this Autumn.

1.2 The data

We will process the following data:

  • your answers to the questions in the Pulse Survey, including any free-text comments and demographic information you volunteer
  • metadata about how you complete the survey, for example, the time taken to complete the survey and web browser used
  • feedback on the accessibility of the survey platform

Demographic data includes: your ethnic group, your gender identity, your age group, your health status, your caregiver responsibilities, your grade, your profession, and (for overseas staff) your location.

All questions are optional, apart from the first question which asks you to disclose the organisation you currently work for. This is to enable results to be analysed and reported at an organisation level.

The legal basis for processing your personal data and sensitive personal data is that processing is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority vested in the data controller, and it is necessary for reasons of substantial public interest for the exercise of a function of the Crown, a Minister of the Crown, or a government department.

Understanding civil servants’ experiences about working in the Civil Service through the COVID-19 crisis can inform decisions taken to improve these experiences, and support their return to the workplace. It is important to know if groups of staff with specific demographic characteristics have a better or worse experience, so that appropriate action can be taken to level this experience.

1.4 Recipients

Metadata and your feedback on the accessibility of the survey platform will be shared with the Cabinet Office team who are centrally managing this survey, as well as Qualtrics, the experience management company who are hosting this survey and supporting our analysis, and who have been appointed to deliver the annual Civil Service People Survey in Autumn 2020 and 2021.

Your individual answers to the survey questions will be shared with a small number of analysts within the Cabinet Office who are managing the survey, as well as Qualtrics. These answers will be analysed and aggregated before being shared with each participating organisation. No results will be shared for groups with fewer than 10 people, with the exception of comments left within the survey, which will all be passed to the survey manager(s) in each organisation for analysis.

Upon signing a data access agreement, the Cabinet Office may share the individual-level (non-aggregated) data for an organisation with a professional analyst within that organisation for further analysis.

1.5 Retention

Your individual-level data will be held for statistical and user research purposes for two years after the date the survey is completed, at which point their retention will be reviewed. If the data are no longer in use at this point, they will be deleted; if they are still in active use, they will be retained, but their retention will (from then on) be reviewed on an annual basis.

Any organisation that participates in the COVID-19 Pulse Survey and receives individual-level response data for their organisation from Cabinet Office, will be the controller of those data, and therefore responsible for determining how long they will be retained by their organisation.

Aggregate results from the COVID-19 Pulse Survey, which do not count as personal data, will be kept indefinitely, or until they are no longer considered useful by the Cabinet Office and participating organisations.

2. Your rights

Where you wish to exercise one of your rights, your response will need to be able to be identified to be able to comply.

Your rights are as follows. You have the right:

  • to request information about how your personal data are processed, and to request a copy of that personal data
  • to request that any inaccuracies in your personal data are rectified without delay
  • to request that any incomplete personal data are completed, including by means of a supplementary statement
  • to request that your personal data are erased if there is no longer a justification for them to be processed
  • in certain circumstances (for example, where accuracy is contested) to request that the processing of your personal data is restricted
  • to object to the processing of your personal data

3. Complaints

If you consider that your personal data has been misused or mishandled, you may make a complaint to the Information Commissioner, who is an independent regulator. The Information Commissioner can be contacted at:

Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
0303 123 1113
casework@ico.org.uk

Any complaint to the Information Commissioner is without prejudice to your right to seek redress through the courts.

4. Contact details

The data controller for your personal data is the Cabinet Office. In some cases your employing organisation may also be a data controller. This is only in cases where Cabinet Office has shared individual-level survey responses with an organisation (via a qualified analyst who has signed a data sharing agreement, as outlined above).

The contact details for the lead data-controller are:

Cabinet Office
70 Whitehall
London
SW1A 2AS
csps@cabinetoffice.gov.uk

The contact details for the lead data-controller’s Data Protection Officer (DPO) are:

Stephen Jones (DPO)
Cabinet Office
70 Whitehall
London
SW1A 2AS
dpo@cabinetoffice.gov.uk

The Data Protection Officer provides independent advice and monitoring of Cabinet Office’s use of personal information.

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