Survey on the effect of COVID-19 on community groups who operate, promote or facilitate the use of Welsh: privacy notice

The Communities Sub-Group of the Welsh Language Partnership Council have commissioned Knowledge and Analytical Services within the Welsh Government to undertake a survey of the community groups in Wales who promote and facilitate the use of Welsh. The aim of the survey is to understand what impact the Covid-19 pandemic has had on the way community groups operate. It is hoped that this survey will identify what could be done to safeguard opportunities to use Welsh at the community level.

As part of this research, the Welsh Language Analytical Team within the Welsh Government, will be gathering information from community groups through an on-line survey disseminated by the ‘Mentrau Iaith’ (Welsh language agencies).

There are 22 ‘Mentrau Iaith’ in Wales, each responsible for supporting and promoting the Welsh language in their areas.  

The Welsh Government is the data controller for this research; however, the ‘Mentrau Iaith’ will help the Welsh Government to administer the survey, and will receive the survey responses from the community groups who meet and operate in the areas that they work in.

The information collected during the project will be included in a research report which may be published on the Welsh Government website. The Welsh Government will not identify any community groups or the individuals who respond to the survey in their report.

The ‘Mentrau Iaith’ will use the information collected by this survey to update language profiles for their areas as well as to help them identify new priorities in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic and to develop their future work programmes. The ‘Mentrau Iaith’ will also not identify any community groups or individuals in any publication containing this survey’s results, without gaining the individual or groups explicit consent.

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

Personal data is defined under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) as ‘any information relating to an identifiable person who can be directly or indirectly identified by reference to an identifier’.

The Welsh Government does not hold relevant contact details for community groups. The ‘Menter Iaith’ for the area you operate in has been asked to contact you to inform you of this survey and provide you with a link to participate should you wish to take part. Welsh Government will provide the ‘Menter Iaith’ for your area with your survey responses.

If you agree to participate, there are questions in the survey asking for the name of your community group and for contact details for the group. You do not have to provide this information. It is possible to leave these questions blank if you wish.

We ask for the name of the group so that your local ‘Menter Iaith’ knows whether your group has provided a response. If the group name is not provided, your local ‘Menter Iaith’ may contact you again to remind you to respond, or to offer you help to complete the survey.

We ask for your contact details so that the Welsh Government (or a contracted third party on their behalf) can contact you to ask further questions about the answers you have provided in this survey or to ask you to participate in further research about community groups who operate in Welsh. If you provide your contact details, you are not obliged to participate in any further research, but you may be asked whether you would like to.    

This research does not require the collection of any additional personal data from you. Your IP address will not be collected by completing the survey.

Your participation is voluntary.

If you choose to provide additional personal data in any responses to the survey questions, we will not publish any response which will identify you. If you raise a query or complaint and provide personal data requesting a response, the researcher will forward the request only to the relevant official and subsequently delete it from the research 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, for example, might be used to:

• better understand the impact of COVID-19 on community groups and what needs to happen to safeguard opportunities for people to converse in Welsh
• to develop work streams which could be introduced into the 5 year Work Programme (2021 to 2026) for Cymraeg 2050

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. Any personal data provided will be stored in this restricted folder.

This survey is administered using a survey software programme called Smart Survey. We have ensured that Smart Survey is GDPR compliant and meets our expectations in terms of the security of any data collected via the software (for example, all data is processed within the UK).

All data gathered through this research will only be reported in an anonymised format. It will not contain your contact details and any identifiable information in open-ended answers will be removed. The Welsh language analytical team will use the information gathered to produce a report, and this may be published on the Welsh Government website. This report will not include any information that could be used to identify individual participants.

When the survey is live, the Welsh Government will provide the ‘Mentrau Iaith’ with a list of the names of the groups who have completed the survey within the area the ‘Mentrau Iaith’ operate. This is so that the ‘Mentrau Iaith’ can cross-reference the list of survey responders with the list of community groups in their areas, in order to remind those who have not responded, or offer them help, to complete the survey.   

Once all survey responses have been received, the Welsh Government will also provide to each ‘Menter Iaith’ the survey responses for the community groups within the areas they operate. 

The ‘Mentrau Iaith’ will ensure that all personal data provided by the survey will be stored securely in a restricted folder. The ‘Mentrau Iaith’ will ensure that any survey findings reported do not disclose any of the groups’ contact details nor individual’s names. They may wish to refer to a particular group in their reports; however, they will only do this with the prior consent of that group.

Any personal data collected by this survey will be deleted by the Welsh Government research team and the ‘Mentrau Iaith’ two years after the publication of the survey findings.

This is to allow sufficient time for the Welsh Government to plan and deliver any follow up research after interpreting the results of this survey. 

Under GDPR, you have the following rights in relation to the personal information you provide as part of this research, 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)
• 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

Telephone: 01625 545 745 or 0303 123 1113
Website: Information Commissioner’s Office

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 General Data Protection Regulation, please contact:

Lisa Walters (Welsh Government)
Telephone: 0300 025 6682 (rydym yn croesawu galwadau yn Gymraeg / we welcome calls in Welsh)
Email: welshlanguagedata@gov.wales

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

Welsh Government
Cathays Park
Cardiff
CF10 3NQ
Email: dataprotectionofficer@gov.wales