National Survey for Wales: 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 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 is mainly carried out online. We also provide an option to complete the survey on paper or by telephone to make sure as many people as possible can take part.

The Welsh Government is the data controller for the study, NatCen is a data processor as they carry out the survey on behalf of the Welsh Government. 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 research reports and statistical bulletins published on the Welsh Government website and in other publications by Welsh Government and the survey co-funders Sport Wales, Natural Resources Wales, and Arts Council of Wales. Anonymised data will also be made available to accredited researchers, for non-commercial research purposes only, via the UK Data Service and via the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage (SAIL) Databank run by Swansea University. All published findings will be 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, your views and experiences are important. Welsh Government, local councils, and NHS Wales will use the results of the research to take action on issues that affect you and people in your local area.

The contact details for this research at NatCen are:

E-mail address: NationalSurveyWales@natcen.ac.uk

Telephone number: 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 reminder letters 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 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 for contact purposes is:

• Name
• Full postal address
• Email address

We also request the following personal data which is stored separately to your contact details with your survey response:

• Date of birth

And special category data:

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

Your participation in the study is voluntary. 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 study.

If you complete the study online, your answers will be saved each time you move to the next page. To keep your data secure, survey sections will automatically lock as you progress. This means that after you move on to a new section you will not be able to review or change the answers to the previous section. 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 allow you 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 using the email address you provided. 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 name and email address (if you provided it) within one month of issuing the voucher. NatCen will delete your address details within 9 months of you receiving a postal voucher if you request one.

If you complete the survey on paper, it will be processed by Adetiq Ltd, who will pass on your responses to the 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 one month after they receive it.

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.

Surveys carried out by telephone are recorded and may be observed solely for training and monitoring purposes by research team members from NatCen. The interviewer will make this clear to you before the survey begins, and you will have the opportunity to say if you prefer not to proceed with the survey by telephone. Any recording that you agree to will be deleted 6 months after you take part by telephone..

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.

As part of the survey, respondents are asked if they would be willing to take part in further research by the Welsh Government, Sport Wales, Natural Resources Wales or Arts Council Wales. If you agree to take part in recontact research then your details will be retained for three years. Your details will be held by the Welsh Government and only passed on to either Sport Wales, Natural Resources Wales and Arts Council Wales where they are undertaking any further research.

Also as part of the survey, respondents are asked whether they would like to receive a copy of the survey results. If you wish to receive survey results these will be provided once the survey year is concluded and the results are published (usually in July following each April to March field period). Your details will be deleted within a month of the publication of the results.

Any queries or complaints will not form part of the research data at any point. If you raise a complaint directly with Welsh Government, any personal information you provide in relation to the complaint will be handled as described in the Welsh Government privacy notice.

Your answers to the survey are linked anonymously to other data sources as part of the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage (SAIL) databank for non-commercial research purposes (unless you ask for this linkage to not take place).

The SAIL Databank is a collection of anonymised data about the population of Wales, which is internationally recognised for the robust secure storage and use of anonymised person-based data for research to improve health, well-being and services. Respondents are able to opt out of having their answers linked. For more information on how to do that or on the process of data linking, please visit National Survey for Wales – Data linking.

Anonymised survey data is also made available via the UK Data Service for research projects carried out by accredited researchers such as academics and NHS researchers. The anonymised survey data is held securely and is only ever used for non-commercial research purposes. We do not share or use your information for commercial or marketing purposes.

Anonymised survey data is also shared with Public Health Wales for non-commercial research projects. Public Health Wales holds the data securely and does not share or use your information for other purposes.

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. However, research studies such as this are important so that we can make decisions that reflect the views and experiences of people across Wales. 

The information collected in the survey 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 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 all 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 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 meets our expectations in terms of the security of all data processed using the software.

To process paper responses, Adetiq Ltd will transfer all 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 / Adetiq Ltd / Transport for Wales Ltd will report this to the Welsh Government who will notify you and any applicable regulator where we are legally required to do so. 

Any personal data provided to Welsh Government is held on secure servers, and for this project a folder has been created that has access restricted only to the Welsh Government’s National Survey for Wales research team. Your contact details and any other directly identifiable data you provide will be stored in this restricted folder, separately from the survey datasets. 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. 

Anonymised survey data is made available to researchers via the UK Data Service. Officially-recognised researchers, such as academics and NHS researchers, and other public sector bodies in Wales may also request access to data not available through the UK Data Service. These requests are scrutinised by the Welsh Government’s Chief Social Research Officer and – if approved – are governed by Data Access Agreements issued by the Welsh Government. These formal agreements set out strict requirements for the processing and safekeeping of personal data. 

Where the Welsh Government or its survey partners, Sport Wales, Natural Resources Wales and Arts Council Wales undertake follow up research in support of the purposes outlined above, this work may be carried out by an accredited third party (e.g. a research organisation or a consultancy company), who would receive contact details for anyone selected for the research who has agreed to be contacted about further research. Any such work will only be undertaken under contract. Welsh Government’s and its partners’ standard terms and conditions for such contracts set out strict requirements for the processing and safekeeping of personal data.

The main survey fieldwork period runs from April each year to the following March. 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 April to March.. 

Digital copies of response data (including personal and special category data) held by Adetiq Ltd will be retained by them 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 or postal voucher, 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. If you choose to receive an email voucher, NatCen will hold your name and email address (if provided) after you have completed the survey and delete them within one month of your voucher expiring. 

NatCen will provide Welsh Government with the full dataset, including the data listed above, as well as contact information for those respondents who have agreed to be re-contacted and/or wish to receive survey results. The survey results are kept separate from the list of contacts for recontact research or requiring a copy of the results (and these are two separate lists even if you agreed to both). The Welsh Government will delete identifiable information in the following manner:

• Within the survey results, the Welsh Government will delete your name and date of birth within one year of dataset sign-off. The resulting pseudo-anonymised dataset containing some of the information listed above, but no identifying information will be retained within the survey results after this date.
• Where you agreed to be recontacted the Welsh Government will delete your name, telephone number, postal address, email address and date of birth from the separated recontact list within three years of dataset sign-off.
• Where you asked for a copy of the survey results the Welsh Government will delete your contact information from the separated list of those wish to receive the results within a month of the publication of the results

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

To allow data linking with the Secure Anonymised Information Linkage (SAIL) databank at Swansea University, Digital Health and Care Wales also have access to some of the personal data, including name, postal address, sex and date of birth, for a period of three months.

Under UK GDPR, you have rights in relation to the personal information you provide as part of this study.

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)
• 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:

Postal 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 collected as part of this study will be used by the Welsh Government or if you wish to exercise your rights using the UK General Data Protection Regulation, please contact:

The National Survey for Wales team

E-mail address: surveys@gov.wales

Telephone number: 0300 025 2021

Welsh Government’s Data Protection Officer 

Postal address: Welsh Government, Cathays Park, Cardiff, CF10 3NQ, 

Email: DataProtectionOfficer@gov.wales.