Guidance

UK innovation survey: privacy notice

Updated 13 March 2025

This notice sets out how we will process and use your business data for the UK innovation survey (UKIS) 2023 and future iterations of the survey.

It sets out how your data will be processed, kept securely and confidentially. It also covers, where necessary, how data will be shared with other government departments, devolved administrations, approved contractors and accredited researchers for statistical purposes only.

Purpose

UKIS is run every 2 years and collects data from businesses about various aspects of their innovation related activities.

The information collected is used to measure the level, types and trends in innovation at the aggregated level. The main findings from UKIS are published in online reports as Official Statistics. More details are available at the UKIS collection page.

The data also forms part of the OECD-wide innovation indicators. The OECD innovation compendium is used for international benchmarking and comparison purposes.

UKIS is used as the main data source for business innovation in the UK and helps the government develop, improve, and evaluate innovation policy. It is also used by the research community to understand the innovation landscape.

Legal basis of processing and how we will keep your information secure and confidential

The legal basis for processing your business data is set out to keep your information secure and confidential.

This means that we will:

• process your information as necessary for archiving in the public interest, scientific or historical research purposes or statistical purposes in accordance with Part 5, Chapter 5 of the Digital Economy Act 2017

• only use your information for statistical purposes, or to help us run our surveys, and not publish anything that identifies an individual, household or business

• recognise that you are sharing commercially sensitive information with us and treat it as confidential, as directed by the Code of Practice for Statistics

All published outputs are produced following Government Statistical Service (GSS) and Government Social Research (GSR) statistical disclosure control standards to ensure confidentiality.

Recipients and who can access the information

Your data will be shared by DBT with other government departments, devolved administrations (DAs), non-governmental organizations (NGOs), approved contractors and accredited researchers where necessary for statistical research purposes.

We will:

• provide survey information to other government departments, DAs and approved DBT contractors for statistical research purposes in line with Part 5, Chapter 5 of the Digital Economy Act 2017

• provide survey information to ONS Secure Research Service and UK Data Service for statistical research purposes in line with Digital Economy Act 2017. Approved contractors and accredited researchers will be able to access UKIS data in these secure environments

• ensure all individuals who have access to data are aware of their obligations to protect your confidential information

• maintain the security of our systems and our buildings

DBT employs the ONS to assist with survey data collection. They work under our instruction and are strictly used as the experts in data collection in their capacity as a data processor. We retain your data and control how this is used, stored safely and securely.

How we use your data

UKIS is used as the main data source for business innovation in the UK and helps the government develop, improve, and evaluate innovation policy.

More details are available at the UKIS collection page.

Find out more about UKIS data collection

You can find out more information about UKIS data collection and ONS acting as a data processor (collecting the information on our behalf) in their data privacy statement.

Contact details

If you need further clarification or information about anything in this privacy notice please email business.statistics@businessandtrade.gov.uk initially or dataprotection@businessandtrade.gov.uk.