Scope of policy
This privacy policy explains how the UK Statistics Authority and its regulatory arm, the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR), use and protect any personal data we collect about you. It aims to offer transparency on how we handle your information in a clear and understandable way, by providing you with an overview of our processes.
The UK Statistics Authority delegates some of its functions to its executive office, the Office for National Statistics (ONS). ONS is the UK’s National Statistical Institute, and largest producer of official statistics. See the ONS website for information on ONS’s privacy policy.
Why do we collect information?
Under the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007, the UK Statistics Authority has a statutory objective to promote and safeguard the production and publication of official statistics that serve the public good which provides us with a lawful basis to process your personal data. In order to do that, we need to speak with users and producers of statistics, organisations who supply data to producers of statistics and other interested parties to understand their views and opinions as part of our regulatory research work and outreach activities.
What information do we collect about you?
The Authority and its regulatory arm, the OSR, collect information including name and contact details. Often these details will be originally sourced in the public domain, such as from your organisation webpages. We will also collect information if you have contacted us directly. We may request contact information from statistics producers as part of our regulatory work to assist us in identifying people who use or have an interest in their statistics. We may also be passed contact information from our existing contacts who have identified you as having views which may assist us in our work.
We occasionally carry out surveys using Survey Monkey, where participation is completely voluntary. Survey Monkey has issued assurances that they will meet GDPR standards, though they also host all their data in the United States. Please see Survey Monkey’s Privacy Policy.
We also hold records of our interactions with you including email correspondence and meeting notes.
How will we use the information about you?
We use the names and contact details we hold to identify and contact individuals who we are confident will have an interest in a particular statistical topic we are working on. We may directly seek your views, invite you to meetings, alert you to our published reports and offer opportunities to attend events or engage with our consultations. We do not use a single blanket mailing list but refresh our lists and tailor our engagement to the work we are undertaking.
We may also keep records of our email and written correspondence with you, your responses to consultations, and notes we record of any meetings with you. These records form an important part of the evidence base to help inform our regulatory judgements.
When we receive a complaint about statistics from you, we will keep a record of your correspondence. We may contact you during our investigation to acknowledge your initial correspondence, gather additional information, and formally respond to the issues you have raised. We also keep a log of your information so we can monitor our complaints procedures.
As a default, all information is held securely in a way that restricts access only to staff employed by the Authority and its regulatory arm, the OSR. We currently retain all records of our regulatory activities for as long as they help us fulfil our statutory functions. We will be reviewing our retention policy in summer 2018 and will update this privacy policy following that review.
What information about you will we share?
We may share certain information in circumstances which would support our regulatory activities, such as to publish correspondence or complaints sent into the Authority and the OSR. In these circumstances, we will contact you in advance and seek your permission.
We may publish your views within public records of our judgements and we will ask, or you can request, that we share your views with a statistics producer. In both cases this will be done anonymously unless you request for the information to be attributed.
We may be asked to provide information we hold under the Freedom of Information Act 2000. In those circumstances, we would not disclose personal data as appropriate and may consult you if we receive such a request.
Your rights
You have the right to request a copy of the information that we hold about you and to ask us to stop processing your personal data. You may also ask us to correct information you think isn’t accurate or up to date.
Further information on the rights available to you, and the circumstances under which you can exercise them, is available from the Information Commissioner.
Changes to our privacy policy
We keep our privacy policy under regular review and we will place any updates on this web page. This privacy policy was last updated in May 2018.
Contact us
Please contact us if you have any questions about our privacy policy or information we hold about you.
Telephone: 0845 601 3034
Email: DPO@statistics.gov.uk
Post:
Data Protection Officer,
Office for National Statistics,
Segensworth Road,
Titchfield,
Fareham, Hampshire.
PO15 5RR