UK Statistics Authority privacy notice

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.

The General Data Protection Regulation and the Data Protection Act 2018 together determine how, when and why any organisation can process personal data. Personal data is any information that can identify a living individual. These laws exist to ensure that your data is managed safely and used responsibly. They also provide you with certain rights in respect of your data and create a responsibility on us, as a user of personal data, to provide you with certain information. While most of this information is available elsewhere on our website and other promotional materials, gathering it here in one place should make it easier for you.

The identity and contact details of the data controller

The data controller is the person or organisation who decides what personal data shall be processed and for what purpose. For the vast majority of our work the UK Statistics Authority is the controller and makes those decisions. However, in some instances we provide statistical services to other organisations or government departments and collect or process data on their behalf. Whenever that is the case we will let you know.

You can get in contact with UKSA either by email or post:

Email the Authority Enquiries team.

Authority Enquiries
UK Statistics Authority
Fry Building
1st Floor, 2 Marsham Street
London
SW1P 4DF

The contact details of our Data Protection Officer

Our Data Protection Officer is the person charged with providing the UK Statistics Authority with advice and guidance on the ways we can best protect the information we collect and use, and they are involved in all the major decisions we make in relation to personal data. If you have any queries or concerns regarding your data, or wish to exercise any of your rights (see later in this guidance), then please contact the Data Protection team via email or post:

Email: DPO@statistics.gov.uk

Data Protection Officer
Office for National Statistics
Segensworth Road
Titchfield
Fareham
Hampshire
PO15 5RR

If you would like to exercise your data protection rights via the telephone, please contact our Customer Contact Centre, providing details of your request and email and, or, written address details. They will then be able to pass this over to the Data Protection team to action and respond.

Telephone: 0345 601 3034

The purposes for which personal data are processed

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. This means that any personal data we collect, whether it is for our own use or on behalf of someone else, will only ever be used to produce statistics or undertake statistical research. In order for us to produce statistics and enable research we may link the data that we collect with other data that we hold.

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 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.

The legal basis for the processing

Data protection legislation requires that all processing of personal data is undertaken under one or more of a set list of conditions. Unless stated otherwise all ONS statistical processing is undertaken under the following condition:

“Processing is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority vested in the controller.”

An additional condition is required for any processing of special personal data. Special personal data is information about your racial or ethnic origin, political opinions, religious or philosophical beliefs, trade union membership, sex life or sexual orientation. It also includes genetic and biometric data. The condition that ONS uses to process such data is:

“Processing is necessary for archiving in the public interest, scientific or historical research purposes or statistical purposes based on UK law.”

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.

The period for which personal data will be stored

Data protection law requires that personal data is kept for no longer than is necessary to fulfil the purposes for which it was originally collected. 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.

Artificial intelligence

UKSA is exploring how generative artificial intelligence (AI), and in particular large language models (LLMs), can be used to safely and securely assist with the production of high-quality statistics. An AI Leadership Group, alongside clear staff guidance, policies and training, ensure that the same high level of compliance with security, legal and ethical requirements continues to apply to all processing of personal data. AI model inputs are never shared externally or used to train external LLMs, and your data protection rights continue to apply in relation to the UKSA use of AI.

All UKSA and OSR content that has been produced with the assistance of AI will be clearly labelled as such on the websites.

Your rights

As a data subject (someone whose personal data we hold) you have rights available to you under data protection law. If you wish to exercise any of these rights then please contact our Data Protection Officer, but please be aware that we may not be required to comply if the data is being held for statistical purposes only.

Compliance requirements are set out in the UK GDPR, the Data Protection Act 2018, and the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025.

You have the right to request from any controller that holds your personal data: access to the information they hold about you and to amend any wrong or inaccurate information they hold about you. You have the right to object to your personal data being processed.

You have the right, in some circumstances, to request for any controller to: erase any personal data they may hold about you, stop processing your personal data, or pass any information they hold about you to another controller.

You have the right to complain about the handling of your personal data.

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: 0345 601 3034

Email: DPO@statistics.gov.uk

Post:

Data Protection Officer,

Office for National Statistics,

Segensworth Road,

Titchfield,

Fareham, Hampshire.

PO15 5RR

If you have any queries about the work of the Authority, please contact authorityenquiries@statistics.gov.uk

The Information Commissioner

The Information Commissioner’s Office is the independent body tasked with regulating data protection within the UK. They can provide you with additional information regarding data protection and your rights, and will deal with any complaints you may have regarding our use of your data:

0303 123 1113
casework@ico.org.uk

Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF