Transparency data

Privacy Notice for Test, Learn & Grow Accelerator on Violence Against Women and Girls

Published 11 June 2026

This notice sets out how we will use your personal data, and your rights. It is made under Articles 13 and/or 14 of the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR). 

The Cabinet Office and Public Digital are Joint Controllers of your personal data. The Cabinet Office is acting as your primary contact point for this processing activity.

YOUR DATA 

Purpose

The purpose for which we are processing your personal data is: 

Research on the experience and perpetration of violence against women and girls (VAWG) along with the services designed to prevent, detect, and manage incidents of violence. 

We are conducting research with:

• People who live in our target areas who may interact with local support services who offer support for those experiencing or perpetrating VAWG and/or services with safeguarding duties (for example, people who use drop-in centres or engage with social care services).
• Service providers and community leaders who may be in contact with victims or perpetrators of VAWG (including but not limited to police officers, medical workers, social care workers, Independent Domestic Violence Advocates (IDVAs), teachers, and sports coaches).

Research activities include:

• Interviewing
• Holding focus groups and workshops
• Surveying
• Diary studies
• Observing in different settings

For all activities above, we will provide an information form (containing detail on the Test, Learn, and Grow programme, the VAWG Accelerator, and our research questions). We will then ask for your consent. In the case of children, we will ask for a legal proxy to provide consent on their behalf.

AI tools may be used to assist in clustering themes or identifying patterns within qualitative data, but outputs will always be reviewed and interpreted by researchers. These will be used to help assure our efforts and provide challenge to our own thematic analysis, therefore speeding up the process. As this is novel technology, we will ensure that all AI outputs are quality assured, and used only in conjunction with our own, independent, findings. No AI tool will be trained on your data and the data will not leave our control.

There will be no decisions made about, or that directly impact, specific individuals as part of this activity. 

From our research we hope to develop an in-depth understanding of VAWG and the experience of VAWG services among local residents. A key output will be fully anonymised reports about our findings to be shared across partners (the local city council and interacting service providers) and findings from this research will be used to inform interventions taking place in the area, such as changes to the way services operate.

The data

We will process the following personal data: 

• Name
• Email address
• Date of birth or age
• Physical address
• Employment details (job titles, start date, or similar)
• Location data
• Audio or video recordings, or transcriptions (you will be informed prior to any recording regarding the specific nature of the recording)
• Religious or philosophical belief
• Health related information
• Sex life or sexuality related information
• Information on ethnicity or race
• Your opinions (for example on your previous experiences with VAWG services or ideas for policy improvements)
• Any other information you voluntarily provide during an engagement, which may include criminal allegations or convictions related information, political opinions, and experiences relating to VAWG.

Legal basis of processing 

The legal basis for processing your personal data is that you have given opt-in consent

Sensitive personal data is personal data revealing racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, or trade union membership, and the processing of genetic data, biometric data for the purpose of uniquely identifying a natural person, data concerning health or data concerning a natural person’s sex life or sexual orientation.
The legal basis for processing your sensitive personal data, or data relating to criminal convictions and offences if provided during an engagement, is explicit consent (art. 9(2)(a) UK GDPR).

Recipients

Your personal data will be shared between the Cabinet Office and Public Digital as joint controllers. It may also be shared with trained qualitative researchers who act as our data processors.

As your personal data will be stored on our IT infrastructure it will also be shared with our data processors who provide email, and document management and storage services. 

In some cases, information confirming your attendance at an engagement may be shared with People for Research who provide payment services and act as an independent data controller. 

Retention 

Your personal data will be kept by us for 2 years (or earlier if it can be anonymised or consent is withdrawn).

Audio and video recordings will be deleted once transcripts are created or verified (within weeks). Transcripts will either be pseudonymised or anonymised depending on their content. The transcripts will be kept for 2 years to support analysis and anonymised reporting.

YOUR RIGHTS 

You have the right to request information about how your personal data are processed, and to request a copy of that personal data. 

You have the right to request that any inaccuracies in your personal data are rectified without delay. 

You have the right to request that any incomplete personal data are completed, including by means of a supplementary statement. 

You have the right to request that your personal data are erased if there is no longer a justification for them to be processed. 

You have the right in certain circumstances (for example, where accuracy is contested) to request that the processing of your personal data is restricted. 

You have the right to withdraw consent to the processing of your personal data at any time
You have the right to request a copy of any personal data you have provided, and for this to be provided in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format

INTERNATIONAL TRANSFERS

As your personal data is stored on our Corporate IT infrastructure, and shared with our data processors, it may be transferred and stored securely outside the UK. Where that is the case it will be subject to equivalent legal protection through an adequacy decision, reliance on Standard Contractual Clauses, or reliance on a UK International Data Transfer Agreement.

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

or 0303 123 1113, or icocasework@ico.org.uk.  Any complaint to the Information Commissioner is without prejudice to your right to seek redress through the courts. 

CONTACT DETAILS 

The Cabinet Office and Public Digital are Joint Controllers for your data.

The Cabinet Office is acting as primary contact for this processing activity and is the primary point of contact for queries or Subject Access Requests. The Cabinet Office contact details for are:

Cabinet Office
70 Whitehall
London
SW1A 2AS

or 0207 276 1234, or you can use this webform. 

The contact details for the data controller’s Data Protection Officer are: dpo@cabinetoffice.gov.uk. 

You can contact the Public Digital Data Protection Officer at data-protection-officer@public.digital.