Nature Workforce Wales Survey: privacy notice

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 will have received or otherwise accessed a link to the survey for one or more of the following reasons:

• The Welsh Government hold your contact details (name and email address) due to your regular involvement with us on nature-related policy areas. The Welsh Government have shared the survey link with you directly.
• The Welsh Government do not hold your contact details. A nature-related organisation, stakeholder representative group or individual that we regularly engage with, has agreed to share the survey link with their contacts on the Welsh Government’s behalf. This might be your employer, or an organisation you volunteer for, or a group or organisation that you are already known to. You will have received a link to the survey because they think you might consider yourself to be part of the nature workforce in Wales.
• You have accessed the survey via a link on the Welsh Government social media channels.
• Via a colleague or peer – the Welsh Government are encouraging people to share the survey link with colleagues and contacts who they think would be interested and might be part of the nature workforce and might be interested in completing the survey.

The survey data is only accessible by Welsh Government and not the body, nor individual that sent you the link, nor your employer.

The survey does not require you to provide any personal data. Completing the survey will not capture your email or IP address and as such the survey responses are anonymous. However, if you choose to provide additional personal data as part of the survey in the open-ended questions, this information will be redacted by the research team in Welsh Government before the data is analysed. We will try not to identify you from, or link your identity to, the responses you provide.

At the end of the survey there will be an opportunity to join a contacts database for the ‘nature workforce’. If you wish to join this database, you will need to provide the following personal information:

• Name
• Job role
• Email address

Nature Workforce Contacts Database

If you choose to provide your contact details for the nature workforce contacts database then your details will be used for the following purposes:

• To receive information from the Welsh Government on policy development and other issues relating to the nature workforce
• To receive information about training and skills development opportunities,
• To be invited to take part in follow-up research and/or engagement activities to help the Welsh Government gain insight from members of the nature workforce on important issues.
• Your contact details will not be linked to your nature workforce survey response in any way. Providing your details for the contact list is entirely voluntary and is not required to take part in the nature workforce survey itself.
• If you are asked to take part in any future research then you will receive a privacy notice for that research and your participation is always voluntary.

You can contact the Welsh Government using the details provided at any time to ask for you details to be removed from the contact list

The lawful basis for processing information in this survey 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 workforce contacts database is useful for the Welsh Government to have a mechanism to get in touch with members of the nature workforce, for example to share information on opportunities for training and skills development, as well as gain insights from members of the workforce on important issues through further research and engagement.

Personal data provided to Welsh Government is held on secure servers. A folder has been created that has access restricted only to the immediate team.

When conducting surveys, the Welsh Government use 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 findings from the survey will be published on the Welsh Government website. This report will not include any information that could be used to identify individual participants.

Any personal data that was provided in open-ended questions in the survey will be deleted as part of data analysis.

If you provide your contact details for the workforce contacts database then the database will be reviewed every 5 years. The review will confirm the ongoing need for a contacts database and where that is confirmed you will be asked if you wish to remain on the database. You can request for your details to be removed from this database at any time by emailing the Welsh Government: climatechange@gov.wales.

Where Welsh Government already held your contact details these will be retained according to the original purpose.

Under GDPR, you have the following rights in relation to the personal information you provide through any of the research conducted through the Employee Research Programme, 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.

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 Welsh Government’s Data Protection Officer can be contacted at: