Hate Hurts Wales survey: privacy notice

The Welsh Government is the data controller for the personal data collected through this survey. The survey is being conducted on behalf of the Welsh Government as part of the Hate Hurts Wales campaign.

The survey aims to understand awareness of hate crime, attitudes towards reporting, barriers to reporting or seeking support, and people's experiences of hate crime and witnessing hate crime.

Participation is voluntary. You do not have to answer every question or provide information where a question allows this.

The survey may collect:

• your age
• race or ethnicity, nationality, religion or belief, disability or long-term health condition, sexual orientation and gender identity
• the language or languages you use confidently
• the local authority area in which you live
• your awareness and understanding of hate crime and views about reporting it
• whether you have experienced or witnessed a hate crime or hate incident, including whether it was reported and any reasons for not reporting it
• your views about support available to people affected by hate crime
• any other information you choose to provide in open-text responses

Some of this information is special category data under the UK GDPR. This includes information about race or ethnicity, religion or belief, disability or health, sexual orientation and gender identity. Information about experiences of hate crime may also contain special category data, depending on what you choose to disclose.

Please do not provide information that identifies you or another person in free-text responses.

The survey is administered using SmartSurvey. SmartSurvey records IP addresses by default and may collect information about your device, browser and the date and time of your interaction with the survey.

IP addresses and other technical information will be used for secure survey administration and fraud prevention. They will not be used to analyse survey findings or identify respondents.

The Welsh Government's lawful basis for processing personal data is Article 6(1)(e) of the UK GDPR public task. The processing is necessary for the Welsh Government to carry out its official functions and inform the development and evaluation of government policy and communications.

For special category data, the Welsh Government relies on Article 9(2)(j) of the UK GDPR processing necessary for archiving purposes in the public interest, scientific or historical research purposes or statistical purposes, together with paragraph 4 of Schedule 1 to the Data Protection Act 2018.

If you provide information about criminal offences in a free-text response, this may include criminal offence data. Such information will only be processed where the requirements of Article 10 of the UK GDPR and the relevant provisions of the Data Protection Act 2018 are met.

The information will help the Welsh Government understand:

• awareness and understanding of hate crime
• attitudes towards reporting
• barriers to reporting or seeking support
• experiences of hate crime and witnessing hate crime
• how awareness, reporting and access to support could be improved

Findings may inform the development and evaluation of the Hate Hurts Wales campaign and related Welsh Government policy and communications activity.

Research is being undertaken by Cowshed Communication, Cardiff, on behalf of the Welsh Government.

Findings will be analysed and reported in anonymised and aggregate form. Published findings will not identify individual participants. Where open-text responses are used, reasonable steps will be taken to remove information that could identify an individual.

Access will be restricted to authorised Welsh Government staff and Cowshed Communication staff who need access to carry out the research and analysis.

SmartSurvey will process and store survey data on behalf of the Welsh Government as the survey platform provider and data processor.

SmartSurvey states that its staff are UK-based and that access to customer data is restricted to authorised staff where required to provide support or technical services.

At the end of the survey, you may optionally provide an email address if you are willing to be contacted about future research, such as focus groups or interviews.

Your email address will be stored separately from your survey responses and used only for this purpose. It will not be used to identify your survey responses when reporting the findings.

Survey data is stored on SmartSurvey's UK-based servers. Personal data will not be transferred outside the UK as part of this survey.

The Welsh Government and organisations working on its behalf will have appropriate technical and organisational measures to protect personal information against loss, unauthorised access, use, alteration or disclosure.

SmartSurvey states that survey data is encrypted in transit and at rest and that it is ISO 27001 and Cyber Essentials Plus certified.

Survey responses and associated technical information, including IP addresses, will be retained for 2 years.

Email addresses provided for future research will be retained only for as long as necessary to contact participants about relevant future research and in accordance with applicable retention arrangements.

Once the relevant retention period has expired, personal data will be securely deleted or otherwise disposed of in accordance with Welsh Government procedures. SmartSurvey states that data may remain in backups for a limited period following deletion.

Depending on the circumstances and the legal basis for processing, you may have the right to:

• access your personal data
• ask for inaccurate data to be corrected
• object to or restrict processing
• ask for your data to be erased in certain circumstances

You can also complain to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO).

Because survey findings will be anonymised and reported in aggregate form, it may not always be possible to identify or retrieve individual responses after they have been anonymised or combined with other responses.

The Welsh Government is committed to handling your personal data safely, securely and only for as long as we need.   

If you have any concerns about how we use your personal data, we encourage you to raise them with the relevant team in the first instance.   

You can also contact the Data Protection Officer by emailing DataProtectionOfficer@gov.wales or writing to the DPO at:  

Welsh Government
Cathays Park
Cardiff
CF10 3NQ 

If you wish to make a formal complaint about how the Welsh Government has processed your personal data, you can complain about Welsh Government.

We will acknowledge your complaint and respond within an appropriate timescale, in line with data protection legislation and our complaints process.

For questions about how your information will be used in this survey, or to exercise your data protection rights, contact:

Katie Dowling
Senior Communications Officer, Welsh Government
Email: katie.dowling@gov.wales

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

Data Protection Officer
Welsh Government
Cathays Park
Cardiff
CF10 3NQ
Email: DataProtectionOfficer@gov.wales

You can also contact the Information Commissioner's Office if you have concerns about how your personal information has been handled:

Information Commissioner's Office (ICO)
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
Telephone: 0303 123 1113
Website: www.ico.org.uk

Support

If any of the questions raise something you need support with, you can contact the Wales Hate Support Centre (run by Victim Support) free and confidentially on 0300 30 31 982.

You can contact the police on 101, or 999 in an emergency.

Research organisation

Cowshed Communication
1st Floor, Park House
Greyfriars Rd
Cardiff
CF10 3AF
02920 789 321
info@wearecowshed.co.uk