Guidance

Community Life Survey: information for survey participants

Information about being selected to take part in the Community Life Survey.

Overview

The Community Life Survey covers a range of issues such as people’s experience in their local neighbourhood, community engagement and involvement in activities like volunteering and social action. Kantar Public conduct the survey on behalf of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport.

We need people from all age groups and backgrounds to take part and no matter how active you are in your community, your views are important to us to make sure we have representative picture of the communities that people live in.

The survey data is used to produce and publish statistics which are used by the government, charities and other public sector organisations to track trends over time and inform decision making. The data may also be used by other government departments or other organisations to produce statistics to inform policy making.

Being chosen to take part

Residential addresses are randomly selected from the Post Office’s list of addresses in England, so that the results reflect the experiences and views of the whole population.

If you have been selected to take part, you will have received a letter which will include your reference number and password, as well as instructions about how to take part.

We would be very grateful if you would take the time to complete the survey online. You can do so at commlife.co.uk and you will need your reference number and password which you can find on your survey invitation letter. If you would prefer to fill in a paper version of the questionnaire, you can request this by calling the Kantar Public survey help team on 0800 158 2952 and they will arrange for a paper version to be posted to your household.

Up to four adults age 16 or over can take part per household.

Who is conducting the survey

Kantar Public is carrying out the survey on behalf of the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS)

More information about Kantar Public

Data Protection and Privacy Notice

For general information on how DCMS handles personal data, please read DCMS’s personal information charter.

More detailed information about how your personal data is processed, as well as your rights under the data protection legislation, is available in the Privacy Notice for the Community Life Survey.

For any data protection queries please contact the DCMS Data Protection Officer: dcmsdataprotection@dcms.gov.uk or call 0808 202 4971.

The Information Commissioner’s Office have produced a guide to your rights. If you are not happy with the way we are processing your data, you have the right to lodge a complaint to the Information Commissioner’s Office about our practices, or you can call their helpline on 0303 123 1113.

Further information

If you have been invited to take part in the survey and would like more information please contact the survey support team at:

Tel: 0800 158 2952

Email: Communitylifesurvey@kantarpublic.com

If you would like more information about the statistics produced by DCMS please contact the Central Analysis Team at: evidence@culture.gov.uk

Published 4 December 2018
Last updated 1 June 2022 + show all updates
  1. Added in Data Protection section providing information about the Privacy Notice for the survey.

  2. First published.