Shared Prosperity Fund lessons learned survey: privacy notice

The Regional Investment Team in Welsh Government is undertaking a lessons learnt exercise to facilitate the input of partners across Wales into the Welsh Government’s review of lessons learnt from the delivery of replacement EU funds through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund. 

The exercise is being undertaken via the Strategic Forum for Regional Investment in Wales, with the aim to develop conversations between partners. It can support discussions members of the Forum may wish to undertake with the sectors or organisations they represent who are likely to be involved in delivering and benefiting from an updated approach to any replacement EU funding. 

As part of the exercise, the Regional Investment Team will be gathering information through a survey. You will also have the opportunity to take part in optional follow-up interviews. If you wish to do so you will be asked to provide your contact details as the survey is anonymous. 

The Welsh Government is the data controller for the research. The Regional Investment Team will remove personal data before the report is written up and will not provide personally identifiable data to others in Welsh Government unless you ask us to. 

The information collected during the exercise will help inform a report that will be presented to the Forum and published on the Welsh Government website and will also possibly be used in other publications by the Welsh Government.

Your participation in this research is completely voluntary. However, your views and experiences are important to help inform Welsh Government policies.

The contact for this research at Welsh Government is: Alison Sandford.

E-mail address: alison.sandford@gov.wales 
Telephone number: 03000 628336

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

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’.

You have received a link to the survey through the following routes:

• directly from the Welsh Government. The Welsh Government holds your contact details (name, telephone and email address) as you are a representative / member of the Strategic Forum for Regional Investment in Wales. or
• you may have been contacted because of your relationship with a member of the Forum or as a regional investment delivery partner.

Your participation is voluntary. The survey does not require the collection of additional personal data from you. If you choose to provide additional personal data as part of your survey responses, we will try not to identify you from, or link your identity to, the responses you provide. 

As well as the survey, we may wish to discuss issues in more detail with you. If you are willing to participate in an optional follow-up interview, there is an opportunity in the survey to provide your details (name, email and phone number) and this will be captured on a separate survey form so your survey responses remain anonymous. Following this, undertaking the follow-up interview will not require the collection of additional personal data from you except for your image if you agree to the discussion being video recorded.

We may wish to record interviews for operational reasons. We will make this clear to you before the discussion begins, and you will have the opportunity to tell us if you are not happy for the discussion to be recorded. If interviews are recorded, personal data will be removed during the process of transcribing. Recordings will be deleted as soon as this process is completed. If discussions are not recorded, personal data will not be included in written notes prepared during or following the interviews.

If you raise a query or complaint and provide personal data requesting a response, the Regional Investment Team will forward the request only to the relevant official and subsequently delete it from the research data.

What is the lawful basis for using your data?

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. 

Participation is completely voluntary. Research studies such as this are important for the Welsh Government to collect information and actionable evidence about its ability to deliver government priorities. The information collected in this research will be used to help inform advice to the Welsh Government Cabinet on preparations for any post-2025 regional investment programme in Wales and our negotiations with the UK Government. 

How secure is your personal data?

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 immediate research team. Your contact details and any personal data you choose to provide will be stored in this restricted folder. The researchers will not provide any personal information when reporting findings to others in Welsh Government or the Strategic Forum.

When conducting surveys, the Welsh Government uses a survey software programme called Smart Survey. We have ensured that Smart Survey is UK GDPR compliant and meets our expectations in terms of the security of any data collected via the software. 

The Welsh Government has procedures to deal with any suspected data security breaches. If a suspected breach occurs, the Welsh Government will notify you and any applicable regulator where we are legally required to do so. 

The Regional Investment Team will use the information gathered to produce a report that will be presented to the Strategic Forum for Regional Investment in Wales, shared with the Welsh Cabinet and published on the Welsh Government website. This report will not include any information that could be used to identify individual participants. 

How long do we keep your personal data? 

Any personal data not already removed during the analysis will be deleted by the Regional Investment Team within six months of the publication of the final report. This includes your contact details.

If you are a representative / member of the Strategic Forum for Regional Investment in Wales, the Welsh will retain your contact details according to the original purpose

Individual rights

Under UK GDPR, you have the following rights in relation to the personal information you provide as part of this lessons learnt exercise on post-EU funding, 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: 
Wycliffe House, 
Water Lane, 
Wilmslow, 
Cheshire, 
SK9 5AF. 
Phone: 0303 123 1113. 
Website: www.ico.org.uk

Further Information

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:
Name: Alison Sandford
E-mail address: alison.sandford@gov.wales
Telephone number: 03000 628336

The Welsh Government’s Data Protection Officer can be contacted at: 
Welsh Government, 
Cathays Park, 
Cardiff, CF10 3NQ, 
Email: DataProtectionOfficer@gov.wales