Your Community, Your Say: Survey privacy and cookie notice

The following is to explain your rights and give you the information you are entitled to under UK data protection legislation. If you would like to view this in Welsh please click here.

On this page:


1. The identity and contact details of the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) and our Data Protection Officer

MHCLG is the data controller. The Data Protection Officer can be contacted at dataprotection@communities.gov.uk.

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2. What personal data we are collecting and why

Information collected from this survey will be used to evaluate the UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF) and inform the development of future policy. The UKSPF is a central pillar of the UK Government’s ambitious Levelling Up agenda and a significant component of its support for places across the UK. It provides £2.6 billion of new funding for local investment by March 2025. The evaluation will enable the creation of better policies aimed at building people’s sense of pride in their communities and providing opportunities to live a healthy, enjoyable, and productive life.

The survey needs to collect the following categories of information for the purposes of understanding how demographic differences impact various aspects of life in your community in England and Wales, which will be used to inform the evaluation of the UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF) and for future policy development in MHCLG.

  • Your age and gender
  • Your ethnicity and religion
  • Information about your physical and mental health status
  • Marriage or civil partnership status
  • Internet data (see section 6 below)

The survey will also ask for more details if you’re happy to be re-contacted to participate in more detailed follow up research for the UKSPF evaluation, in which case you will be asked for:

  • Your name (for the purposes of re-contacting you to participate in the more detailed follow up research for the evaluation) 
  • Your contact information, including phone number and email address (for the purposes of re-contacting you to participate in the more detailed follow up research for the evaluation)

You will be contacted to take part in the survey by post if your address is randomly selected through Royal Mail’s publicly accessible Postcode Address File (PAF).

Email addresses may also be used for quality control purposes to validate responses (for example, to prevent multiple entries by the same individual).

Questions within the survey are optional, so you will be able to choose whether or not to provide this data to us to be used as described.

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3. Lawful basis for processing the data

The data protection legislation sets out when we are lawfully allowed to process your data. The lawful basis that applies to this processing is.

  • Article 6 (1) (e) - Public Task; that it is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest.
  • DPA 2018 Part 2 section 8(2)(b) - The exercise of a function of the Crown, a Minister of the Crown or a government department.
  • The lawful basis that applies to processing special category data (health, ethnicity and religion) is Article 9 (2) (g) - Substantial public interest.
  • DPA 2018 Part 2 section 6(2)(b) - The exercise of a function of the Crown, a Minister of the Crown or a government department.

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4. With whom we will be sharing the data

We will share your personal data (your survey answers along with details about the area that you live) with the following data processors, who also work with various sub-processors. We have contracts in place with the lead processors, and they have contracts in place with their sub-processors, which prevents anyone from using your personal data except as instructed by MHCLG.

  1. Verian, a research company who will administer the Your Community Your Life Survey and analyse survey results.
    1. Greens Ltd (printing suppliers and scanning paper questionnaires): Addresses will be provided to Greens to print survey invitations and questionnaires, for individuals who prefer to complete the survey via post.
    2. Bright Marketing Research (BMR) (data collection and processing partner): provides survey scripting, sample uploads, and data processing services for this research.
    3. Merit Incentives (“Merit”) (corporate incentive supplier): If you opt to sign up to receive an incentive for completing the survey, then Merit will request your email address in order to provide your incentive to you. This is optional.
  2. Frontier Economics (an independent economic consultancy) who have been contracted by MHCLG to evaluate the UKSPF.
    1. BMG Research (an independent research organisation): assisting Frontier Economics in the UKSPF evaluation.
  3. Ipsos (Market Research) Limited (an independent research organisation) who have been contracted by MHCLG to evaluate the UKSPF.
    1. Wavehill IT (IT support services): assisting Ipsos (Market Research) Limited in the UKSPF evaluation.
    2. Ecorys (a research organisation): assisting Ipsos (Market Research) Limited in the UKSPF evaluation.
    3. Technopolis Group (a research and consulting organisation): assisting Ipsos (Market Research) Limited in the UKSPF evaluation.

We will not share your information with anyone for the purposes of direct marketing. In some circumstances we may be legally obliged to share information - for example under a court order.

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5. How long we will keep the personal data, or criteria used to determine the retention period.

If you have chosen to complete our survey, we will retain your data until December 2026.

Paper questionnaires are stored securely for a maximum of 12 months and then confidentially destroyed.

If you have agreed to be re-contacted, Verian, Frontier or Ipsos may contact you within 18 months of survey completion, and following this will delete your data.

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6. Data collected during online surveys

Verian do not use cookies on standard online in-house surveys.

As is true of most online surveys, Verian gather certain information automatically and store it in survey data files. This information may include things like Internet Protocol address (IP address), browser type, Internet Service Provider (ISP); referring/exit pages, operating system and date/time stamp.

Verian use this automatically collected information to analyse trends such as browser usage and to administer the site, e.g., to optimise the survey experience depending on your browser type.

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7. Your rights, e.g. access, rectification, erasure

The data we are collecting is your personal data, and you have rights that affect what happens to it. You have the right to:

  • know that we are using your personal data
  • see what data we have about you
  • ask to have your data corrected, and to ask how we check the information we hold is accurate
  • complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (see below)

If you would like to exercise any of your rights, please contact dataprotection@communities.gov.uk.

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8. Children’s data collection

MHCLG never knowingly invites children under the age of 16 years to participate in surveys participation in this survey is intended for those aged 16+ years.

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9. Sending data overseas

Your personal data will not be processed outside of the UK / EU / EEA.

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10. Automated decision making

We will not use your data for any automated decision making.

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11. Storage, security and data management

MHCLG will store your personal data in a secure government IT system.

We have put in place strict contractual terms with Verian, Ipsos and Frontier to ensure the secure storage of personal data you may provide them by taking part in the survey or any follow up research for us.

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12. Complaints and more information

When we ask you for information, we will keep to the law, including the Data Protection Act 2018 and UK General Data Protection Regulation.

If you are unhappy with the way the Department has acted, you can make a complaint.

If you are not happy with how we are using your personal data, you should first contact dataprotection@communities.gov.uk.

If you are still not happy, or for independent advice about data protection, privacy and data sharing, you can contact:


Information Commissioner's Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF
Tel: 0303 123 1113 or 01625 545 745

https://ico.org.uk/

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13. Changes to our privacy policy

We will always have the most up-to-date policy available on this web page. We will record when the policy was last revised.

This Policy was last updated on 18/02/2025.

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