National Survey for Wales 2025 pilot: privacy notice

The National Survey for Wales is an important way for Welsh Government and its partners to collect information on a range of topics needed to help make policy decisions. The survey covers topics such as health, wellbeing, finances, sports, arts activities, and satisfaction with public services.

The 2025 pilot survey is designed to test survey content and processes ahead of the full survey in 2026-27.

The Welsh Government has commissioned the National Centre for Social Research (NatCen) to undertake the National Survey for Wales from 2026-27 onwards. The survey gathers information on people’s views and lives in order to help develop policies and decide how services are delivered in Wales. It is a key source of information for Welsh Government, NHS Wales, local councils, and other public organisations across Wales.

Previously, the survey was carried out by telephone or in person. From 2026-27 onwards, the survey will be mainly carried out online. We will also provide an option to complete the survey on paper or by telephone to make sure as many people as possible can take part. This aim of this pilot, running from October to December 2025, is to ensure survey processes and questions work well ahead of conducting the full survey in 2026-27.

As part of this pilot, NatCen will be gathering information through a survey that can be completed online, on paper or by telephone.

The Welsh Government is the data controller for the study. Any personal data that directly identifies you will be stored separately from the main survey dataset.

The information collected during the project will be included in a report published on the Welsh Government website and possibly in other publications by NatCen and Welsh Government. All the findings we publish are anonymised and no-one looking at the findings will be able to identify you in any way.

Your participation in this research is completely voluntary. However participation is important in order to ensure the National Survey for Wales works well and provides sound evidence to help inform decisions made by Welsh Government and other public organisations in Wales.

The contact for this research at NatCen is Melanie Doyle-Francis.

E-mail: melanie.doyle-francis@natcen.ac.uk

Phone: 020 7549 7052
 

Personal data is defined under the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) as ‘any information relating to an identifiable person who can be directly or indirectly identified by reference to an identifier’.

Participant addresses are randomly selected from the Royal Mail’s publicly available list of all addresses in Wales, and households are sent a letter inviting them to participate. To ensure as many people as possible are able to take part we will also send a reminder letter and, if you cannot complete the survey online, a paper copy of the survey.

If you contact NatCen to take part by telephone, you may be asked to give your name, telephone number or email address so that an interviewer can contact you. If you prefer to make your appointment in Welsh, you will be transferred to Transport for Wales Ltd, who handle Welsh language calls on NatCen’s behalf. Transport for Wales Ltd will ask for your name and telephone number and will share this securely with NatCen so that a Welsh-speaking interviewer can call you back.

If you contact NatCen to request a paper copy of the survey, you will be asked your name and full address. This information will be shared with Adetiq Ltd, who are responsible for processing the paper questionnaire, so they can send you a copy.

The National Survey for Wales collects personal data, where you choose to provide it. We only ask for personal data necessary to carry out the survey and to understand the results. The data is kept confidential and only used for research purposes. All the findings we publish are anonymised and no-one looking at the findings will be able to identify you in any way.

The personal data we request is:

• Name
• Full postal address
• Email address
• Sexual orientation
• Ethnic group
• Religion
• Health and illness, including height and weight, and whether pregnant
• Date of birth 

We also request the following special category personal data:

• Sexual orientation
• Ethnic group
• Religion
• Health and illness, including height and weight, and whether pregnant

Your participation in the study is voluntary and if you do not wish to take part or be sent reminders then please let NatCen know by calling the telephone number provided on the letter and your details will be removed. NatCen will only use your email address and telephone number in order to carry out this pilot survey. 

If you complete the study online, your answers will be saved each time you move to the next page. You can return to complete the study using the same log in code to continue the survey, although you may need to repeat a small number of questions. If you leave the survey part-way through, NatCen will use your email address to send you emails containing a link to resume the study. 

Respondents to the survey are offered a voucher as a thank you for taking part. If you choose for the voucher to be sent to you via email, then this will be sent by NatCen. If you would like a postal voucher, then NatCen will use your name and postal address to send out the voucher. NatCen will only use your details to send you the voucher and will not share your details with anyone else. They will securely delete your contact details within one month of issuing the voucher.

If you complete the survey on paper, it will be processed by Adetiq Ltd, who will pass on your responses to the pilot survey securely to NatCen. Adetiq Ltd will only use your personal data to pass on your responses to NatCen. Adetiq Ltd will securely destroy the paper survey you returned within 1 month.

If you choose to provide additional personal data as part of the research we will not try to identify you from, or link your identity to, the responses you provide. 

Some telephone interviews may be observed or recorded solely for training and monitoring purposes by research team members from NatCen. If this affects your interview we will make this clear to you before the interview begins, and you will have the opportunity to tell the interviewer if you are not happy for the call to be recorded. Any recording will be deleted as soon as it has been used for training or monitoring purposes. 

If you raise a query or complaint and provide personal data requesting a response, the interviewer will forward the request only to the relevant official. 

The lawful basis for processing information in this data collection exercise is our public task; that is, exercising our official authority to undertake the core role and functions of the Welsh Government. Some of the information we are collecting is called ‘special category data’ (in this case information about ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation and health) and the lawful basis for processing this information is that it is for statistical or research purposes.

Participation is completely voluntary. Pilot studies such as this are important because they enable us to make sure that the main survey works well and to understand the effects of changes to the survey design. This will help us ensure that data collected on the survey provides sound evidence to make decisions.  The information collected in future survey years might be used for things such as:

• to find out how satisfied people are with their local area, and about issues in their local area;
• to look at how we can help people who are not using the internet to get access and to feel confident using it; and
• to check whether people find it easy to make appointments at the GP surgery, and if not then what particular barriers we need to tackle.

Personal information provided to NatCen is always stored on a secure server. The data can only be accessed by a limited number of researchers working on this project. NatCen will only use this data for research purposes. NatCen has Cyber Essentials Plus certification.  When conducting surveys, NatCen use a survey software programme called Unicom Intelligence to collect data if you respond online or by telephone. We have ensured that Unicom Intelligence is UK GDPR compliant and meets our expectations in terms of the security of any data collected via the software.

Personal information provided to Transport for Wales Ltd is always stored on a secure server and in compliance with UK GDPR. The data will only be used for the purposes of arranging Welsh Language interviews or assisting with other queries about the survey. To deal with these queries Transport for Wales Ltd may transfer personal data to NatCen via a secure server.

Paper responses to the pilot survey provided to Adetiq Ltd will be kept under lock in Adetiq Ltd offices before and after processing, until they are securely destroyed.  Adetiq Ltd has Cyber Essentials certification.  Adetiq Ltd use a programme called OCR Plus Sight Verification to collect data if you respond on paper. We have ensured that OCR Plus Sight Verification is UK GDPR compliant and meet our expectations in terms of the security of any data collected via the software.

To process paper responses, Adetiq Ltd will transfer response data, including personal and special category data, to NatCen via a secure server. 

NatCen, Adetiq Ltd and Transport for Wales Ltd have procedures to deal with any suspected data security breaches. If a suspected breach occurs that affects your information, NatCen will report this to the Welsh Government who will notify you and any applicable regulator where we are legally required to do so. 

The information collected will only be used for research purposes and to draw conclusions about the general population, not at the level of individual people.

NatCen will use the information gathered to help produce a technical report that will be published on the Welsh Government website. This report will not include any information that could be used to identify individual participants. Reports are published at www.gov.wales/national-survey-wales.

NatCen will hold personal data (including special category data) during the contract period, and will delete all personal data within six months of the dataset sign-off. This includes your contact details. Sign-off takes place around three months after the end of the fieldwork period of October 2025 to December 2025. 

Digital copies of response data (including personal and special category data) held by Adetiq Ltd will be held until the final dataset has been signed off by Welsh Government. The digital data will then be securely deleted by Adetiq Ltd within one month.

If you speak to Transport for Wales Ltd who handle Welsh language calls on behalf of NatCen, Transport for Wales Ltd will delete any personal data within one month after the query has been resolved.

If you request a paper copy of the survey, NatCen will use your address details to send you the survey and delete these with all personal data within six months of dataset sign off. Where you choose to receive a postal voucher, NatCen will hold your contact details after you have completed the survey and delete them within one month of your postal voucher expiring.NatCen will provide Welsh Government with the full dataset but excluding name, postal address, email address and telephone number.

Personal information relating to a complaint to Welsh Government will be handled as described in the Welsh Government privacy notice.

Under UK GDPR, you have the following rights in relation to the personal information you provide as part of this survey pilot, specifically you have the right:

• to access a copy of your own data;
• for us to rectify inaccuracies in that data;
• to object to or restrict processing (in certain circumstances);
• for your data to be ‘erased’ (in certain circumstances); and
• to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) who is our independent regulator for data protection.

The contact details for the Information Commissioner’s Office are:

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

Phone: 0303 123 1113

Website: www.ico.org.uk

If you have any further questions about how the data provided as part of this study will be used by the Welsh Government or wish to exercise your rights using the UK General Data Protection Regulation, please contact the National Survey for Wales team by:

• e-mail: surveys@gov.wales
• phone: 0300 025 2021

You can contact the Welsh Government’s Data Protection Officer by:

• post: Welsh Government, Cathays Park, Cardiff, CF10 3NQ
• email: DataProtectionOfficer@gov.wales