Process Evaluation of the Welsh LGBTQ+ Action Plan: Privacy notice

Background

The Welsh Government has commissioned the National Centre for Social Research 
(NatCen) to carry out a study. This study is an evaluation of the LGBTQ+ Action 
Plan, which was published under the previous Welsh Government. The aim of this
evaluation is to see how effective the LGBTQ+ Action Plan has been, by looking at:

  • how much different groups know and understand about the Action Plan,
  • any gaps or challenges in the delivery of the Action Plan, and
  • a snapshot of the experiences of LGBTQ+ people.

The evaluation will also suggest ways to support equality for LGBTQ+ people in Wales
in the future.

As part of this evaluation NatCen will collect information using surveys and 
interviews with LGBTQ+ people in Wales. Participants will be invited to take part in 
the survey via:

  • email from the survey organisation Dynata,
  • by clicking on the link to the survey on the Welsh Government website, or
  • via contact by the LGBT Consortium. 

At the end of the survey, NatCen will ask participants to say if they are interested in 
taking part in an interview and/or a prize draw. This does not apply to participants 
from Dynata’s panel. They are not eligible for the prize draw, or to take part in 
interviews or further research. For more information about how Dynata process their 
panel’s data, click here.

The Welsh Government is the data controller for the research. This means they 
decide ‘how’ and ‘why’ your personal information is used. NatCen is the data 
processor for this project. This means they are responsible for using your personal 
information and keeping it secure. NatCen will anonymise all data before they share 
outputs with the Welsh Government. They will also delete any personal data 
provided from the survey and interviews within 6 weeks of the end of the evaluation. 

The only exception to this is if you agree to be re-contacted for a follow-up survey 
within the next 5 years. In this case, your name and email will be kept and all other 
personal information deleted. Your email will be deleted after 5 years. This does not 
apply to Dynata panel participants.

The information collected during the project will be included in a report published on 
the Welsh Government website. It may be included in other publications by NatCen
and the Welsh Government.

Your participation in this research is completely voluntary; you do not have to take 
part. However, your views and experiences are important and will help to inform 
Welsh Government policies.

The contact for this research at NatCen is Martin Mitchell.

E-mail address: Martin.Mitchell@natcen.ac.uk

What personal data do we hold and where do we get this information?

Personal data is any information about a person that can identify them. Individuals
can be directly or indirectly identified by their characteristics or other information. For 
example, this could be a name, an ID number, or computer IP address which are 
known as direct identifiers. Indirect identifiers could be one or more physical, cultural,
or social factors. The UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) defines it 
as “any information relating to an identifiable person who can be directly or indirectly 
identified by reference to an identifier”.

If you have been emailed a link to the survey, it will have come from one of the 
following places:

  • Dynata
    • You provided your details to Dynata and agreed to receive information 
      about surveys like this one as part of a panel. Panel members are 
      chosen based on your personal information.
  • The LGBT Consortium
    • The LGBT Consortium identified you as a main contact of one of their 
      member organisations. Your connection with one of these member 
      organisations will be the reason why you have been contacted.
  • NatCen
    • NatCen was given your details with permission by Welsh Government 
      because you are either a member of the previous LGBTQ+ Action Plan 
      Advisory Group, or as another key stakeholder of the previous
      LGBTQ+ Action Plan.
  • Welsh Government
    • The Welsh Government has your details because you are either a 
      member of the previous LGBTQ+ Action Plan Advisory Group, or as 
      another key stakeholder of the previous LGBTQ+ Action Plan. You may
      also have found the link to the survey on the Welsh Government 
      website.

If you were contacted via Dynata, NatCen will not have your name or email address.

If you were contacted via the LGBT Consortium, NatCen will not have your name or 
email address unless you gave The LGBT Consortium specific permission to provide 
it to them. The Welsh Government will not be given your name, email or other 
personal information unless you say you are happy to take part in follow-up research 
in the future. NatCen will only use your name and email address for this evaluation.

This research does not need any more personal data from you, but the survey does 
ask for anonymous information about your:

  • Age
  • Sexual orientation
  • Sex
  • Intersex
  • Gender identity
  • Ethnicity
  • Long lasting health condition
  • Activity restriction
  • Local authority

NatCen will remove information about you that could identify you before sharing 
findings with the Welsh Government. You do not have to give this information, but it 
does help us to make sure that we represent a wide range of people.

If you tell us any other personal data as part of the research, the published report(s) 
will not include any information that could be used to identify you.

Your participation is voluntary; you do not need to take part. If you do not want to 
take part or be sent reminders then please email us or reply to the invitation. Then 
we will delete your contact details. You may withdraw from the study and request 
that any identifiable information about you is deleted. However, once your responses 
have been anonymised and combined with other participants' responses for analysis 
and reporting, it may no longer be possible to identify and remove individual 
contributions.

At the end of the survey, you will be asked if you would be happy to be interviewed. 
If you are interested in taking part in an interview you will be asked for your name, 
email address or another way of contacting you such as a telephone number. These 
will be connected with your survey responses solely for NatCen to identify individuals 
to interview. NatCen will only use your name, email address or telephone number for 
this evaluation. NatCen will then contact you by email to arrange an interview. If you 
change your mind about taking part, you can tell us. This does not apply to Dynata 
panel participants.

We may wish to audio record interviews. We will ask your permission to record the 
interview before the interview starts. You can tell us if you do not wish for your 
interview to be recorded. If we record the interview, we will have:

  • an audio recording with everything that you said

Interviews will be recorded using Microsoft Teams and transcribed using Microsoft 
Word. Your name will not be linked with the transcript. No personally identifiable 
information, or combinations of information, will be used in the report. During or after 
the interview, we might write some notes. We will not write down any of your 
personal information in these notes.

If you have a question or complaint that we cannot answer, we will send it to the 
person who can help. Then we will delete it from our project information.

What is the lawful basis for using your data?

The UK GDPR has rules about how we collect, use, share and keep your personal 
information. The lawful basis for this is our “public task”. This means we can use 
your personal data so we can do the work that the Welsh Government is responsible 
for. 

Some of the information we ask about is “special category data”. This is information 
about you that has extra protections because it is sensitive. In this case, it is information about your sexual orientation, ethnicity and health. The lawful basis for 
processing this information is that it is for “statistical or research purposes”.

Participation is completely voluntary. Taking part in this research is your choice and 
you are allowed to change your mind.

Research studies like this are important for the Welsh Government. They help us to 
collect new information and show if and how government priorities are being 
achieved.

The information collected in this research might be used to:

  • Understand whether the LGBTQ+ Action Plan is delivering against its actions.
  • Understand how a potential future LGBTQ+ Action Plan can be adapted to 
    better meet its goals.
  • Establish some baseline data that can be used as a comparison point to any 
    data collected in future. This could inform any future impact evaluation of the 
    LGBTQ+ Action Plan. 

How secure is your personal data?

Your information provided to NatCen will always be stored on a secure server. Only 
a few people working on this project will be able to see it.

NatCen will only use these data for research purposes. NatCen has Cyber 
Essentials Plus certification and is also certified to ISO 27001. It means they have 
shown that their computer systems follow a set of rules to keep information safe and 
secure.

If you have been contacted via Dynata, and/or you have data stored by Dynata, you 
can be assured that Dynata also follow standard quality assurance procedures 
compliant with UK GDPR, including ISO 27001 certification. The scripting platform 
for the survey is Decipher. Data will be collected by Dynata and will be transferred to 
NatCen securely, using SharePoint.

NatCen has procedures for any suspected data security breaches. If a suspected 
breach occurs, NatCen will report this to the Welsh Government. Where required, 
Welsh Government will notify the Information Commissioner's Office and affected 
individuals.

NatCen will use the information they collected to write a report. You will be able to 
find this report on the statistics and research page of the Welsh Government website. It might include things you wrote in the survey or said in an interview, but no 
one will know that you said it. The report will not include any information that could 
be used to identify you.

How long do we keep your personal data?

NatCen will keep your personal data during the contract period. Any personal data 
not already removed during transcription will be deleted by NatCen within 6 weeks of 
the end of the contract. This includes your contact details, unless you have given 
specific permission for re-contact. This does not apply to Dynata panel participants.

Individual rights

Under UK GDPR, you have rights about the personal information you provided as 
part of this study. Specifically, you have the right to:

  • ask for a copy of your own data
  • ask us to change information that is wrong
  • ask us to stop using your information (in some cases)
  • ask your data to be deleted (in some cases)
  • complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) about how we use or 
    secure your information

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) is our independent regulator for data 
protection. They can be contacted at:

Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF. 

Phone: 0303 123 1113. Website: www.ico.org.uk 

Further Information

Please contact us if you have any questions about how the data you provided as part 
of this study will be used by the Welsh Government. You can also get in touch to use
your rights under UK GDPR. At Welsh Government, please contact:

Name: Hannah Bayfield
E-mail address: Hannah.Bayfield@gov.walesf
Telephone number: 03000 255595

The Welsh Government’s Data Protection Officer can be contacted at:

Welsh Government, Cathays Park, Cardiff, CF10 3NQ.
Email: DataProtectionOfficer@gov.wales