Census Coverage Survey 2022 privacy statement

This Privacy Notice tells you what to expect when you take part in Scotland’s  Census Coverage Survey.

It tells you what personal information we collect, why we collect it, how we use it, who we share it with and how we protect it.

The Census Coverage Survey usually takes place every ten years after the official census.

It is a separate and voluntary survey carried out to make sure we have counted everybody.

The Scottish Government and other public bodies use this census information to gather vital information to help make decisions and design services about how money is spent on things like schools, roads and hospitals in your local community.

This means that it is very important that you complete this.

The Census Coverage Survey will ask a range of personal questions about you and your property.

The most identifiable data we collect will be your name, date of birth and address.

We will ask for this information during the survey to help us count the relevant individual(s) and household once by comparing it with information you provided in the census.

This information will help us to provide data about the age of Scotland’s population and the population levels across the country.

Other personal information that we may collect may be about your interview process and property. We may do this for the safeguarding and well-being of our staff and to support those completing the surveys.

If you contact us using the contact form on our website or through our helpline we may also ask for some personal information so we can reply to you. This may be your name, email address, phone number.

For other types of enquiries, we may ask for further details.

We will collect all census coverage survey information either via a household doorstep interview, over the telephone or via a self-completion paper questionnaire.

Our lawful basis for the collection and processing of personal data for the Census Coverage Survey is the ‘public task’ basis – the exercise of official authority vested in the Registrar General for Scotland as the data controller (Article 6(1)(e) of the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR)).

The processing of special category personal data is lawful because the processing is:

• for reasons of substantial public interest in UK law (UK GDPR - Article 9(2)(g))
• necessary for scientific or historical research or statistical research purposes (UK GDPR–Article 9(2)(j)) in accordance with safeguards required by Article 89(1) of UK GDPR and Section 19 of the Data Protection Act 2018

All Census Coverage Survey data will be kept secure and confidential, and is protected by law.

Census Coverage Survey data with personal identifiers removed may be accessed by approved researchers for projects with demonstrable public benefit.

All access will be provided using appropriate safeguards to preserve data confidentiality.

Your responses do not affect your legal rights, obligations or status or those of the people to whom the responses relate.

Your rights as a data subject are, however, significantly restricted. If you wish to complain or exercise your data subject rights in accordance with the UK GDPR, the Data Protection Act 2018 or any other legislation then please contact us.

If you still consider the processing of your data to be inappropriate or unlawful after receiving our response, you still have a right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office by visiting them at www.ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint or by contacting them by telephone on 0303 123 1113.

The Registrar General for Scotland is the data controller for the information we collect and process. You can contact them via our Data Protection Officer at:

Data Protection Officer
National Records of Scotland
HM General Register House
2 Princes Street
Edinburgh, EH1 3YY

Tel. No. 0131 535 1314

Email: [email protected]

 This Privacy Notice is kept under regular review. The last review was 28 July 2021.