School Survey

Some of the language used in privacy notices can be specialised. The Information Commissioner's website provides a useful introduction to key terms and concepts.

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The purpose of the processing

The Scottish Parliament is carrying out this survey in order to obtain feedback from schools about barriers to visiting the Parliament to help improve the services and facilities we offer.

You are not required to complete the survey and you do not need to answer every question.

We use the data received from the survey to create statistics which show only anonymised data.

Data Protection Principles

We will comply with data protection law, which says that the personal information we hold about you must be: 

1. Used lawfully, fairly and in a transparent way. 
2. Collected only for valid purposes that we have clearly explained to you and not used in any ways that is incompatible with those purposes. 
3. Relevant to the purposes we have told you about and limited only to those purposes. 
4. Accurate and kept up to date.
5. Kept only as long as necessary for the purpose we have told you about.  
6. Kept securely. 

Categories of information provided

The survey does not ask for your name or contact information. It asks for some information about the school you work for and your opinions and experience on visits to Edinburgh and the Parliament.

At the end of the survey there is the opportunity to submit your work email address at the school if you wish to be contacted about more opportunities to provide feedback on our services and potential services.

Source of the information

Information is provided directly by individuals who choose to participate in the survey. 

The legal basis for processing

Data protection law states that we must have a legal basis for handling your personal data.  

As participation in the survey is voluntary, the legal basis for the processing of personal data is that it is carried out with the consent of the data subject in terms of Article 6 (1)(a) of the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR). The survey software program will ask you to indicate your consent and explain your right to withdraw your consent. 

How is your personal information collected

The data will be collected via Smart Survey, which is a third-party digital tool that enables the Scottish Parliament to collect and analyse survey information. The data collected is stored securely by Smart Survey in the UK or EU. You can access information about the processing of personal data by Smart Survey which is available on their privacy notice at the following link: https://www.smartsurvey.co.uk/company/privacy-policy.

The data will be stored for 12 months before being deleted from Smart Survey.  

When we take the data from Smart Survey and move it to the Parliament’s systems, we will remove any personal data and ensure all responses are anonymised. We will then retain the anonymised data for future statistical and analytical purposes.   

Contact details provided will be stored on Parliament Systems for 12 months so that the Education Service can contact you with more opportunities to participate in service development.   

Data sharing and data processing

Data collected by the online survey may be shared internally with the Scottish Parliament Information Centre (SPICe). Personal data is anonymised so any reports compiled from the survey will not identify any individual.

Responses in languages other than English may also be shared with our translators. Once the translated responses are received by the Parliament, we will anonymise and store them.  

Retention of data

Survey responses will be collected and retained in anonymised form.

Personal data from individuals completing the survey will be retained for a period of 12 months from the date of the survey closing.

Children and young people safeguarding and child protection

Sometimes consultation responses can raise child protection concerns. If we believe that you, or someone else, may be at risk of harm, we may report these concerns to the relevant authorities to keep the child safe.

Your rights

Data protection legislation sets out the rights which individuals have in relation to personal data held about them by data controllers. Applicable rights are listed below, although whether you will be able to exercise data subject rights in a particular case may depend on the purpose for which the data controller is processing the data and the legal basis upon which the processing takes place.

The following rights may apply:

Access to your information

You have the right to request a copy of the personal information about you that we hold.   

Further information on how to make a data protection subject access request'. 

Correcting your information

You have the right to ask us to correct the personal data we hold about you. We want to make sure that your personal information is accurate, complete and up to date and you may ask us to correct any personal information about you that you believe does not meet these standards.

Deletion of your information

You have the right to ask us to delete personal information about you where:

• you consider that we no longer require the information for the purposes for which it was obtained.
• we are using that information with your consent and you have withdrawn your consent – see Withdrawing consent to using your information below.
• Our use of your personal information is contrary to law or our other legal obligations.

Objecting to how we may use your information

You have the right at any time to require us to stop using your personal information for direct marketing purposes. In addition, where we use your personal information to perform tasks carried out in the public interest then, if you ask us to, we will stop using that personal information unless there are overriding legitimate grounds to continue.

• Please note that the right to object to the processing of personal data does not apply where the data subject has consented to the processing, subject to the right to withdraw consent
• The right to object to the processing of personal data for the purposes of a public interest task is restricted if there are legitimate grounds for the processing which override the interest of the data subject
• The right of erasure and the right to object to processing of personal data do not apply where personal data is processed for the performance of a legal obligation. This will be considered on a case-by-case basis and depends on what personal data is involved and the risks further processing of that data could pose to you

Deletion of your information

You have the right to ask us to delete personal information about you where:

• You consider that we no longer require the information for the purposes for which it was obtained
• We are using that information with your consent and you have withdrawn your consent – see Withdrawing consent to using your information below
• You have validly objected to our use of your personal information – see Objecting to how we may use your information above
• Our use of your personal information is contrary to law or our other legal obligations

Please note that the right allowing for deletion or erasure of personal data (right to be forgotten) does not apply in cases where personal data is processed for the purposes of the performance of a task carried out in the public interest.

The right of erasure and the right to object to processing of personal data do not apply where personal data is processed for the performance of a legal obligation. This will be considered on a case-by-case basis and depends on what personal data is involved and the risks further processing of that data could pose to you.  

Restricting how we may use your information

In some cases, you may ask us to restrict how we use your personal information. This right might apply, for example, where we are checking the accuracy of personal information about you that we hold or assessing the validity of any objection you have made to our use of your information. The right might also apply where there is no longer a basis for using your personal information, but you don't want us to delete the data. Where this right is validly exercised, we may only use the relevant personal information with your consent, for legal claims or where there are other public interest grounds to do so.

Withdrawing consent to using your information

Where we use your personal information with your consent, you may withdraw that consent at any time and we will stop using your personal information for the purposes for which consent was given.

Please contact us in any of the ways set out below if you wish to exercise any of these rights. 

Changes to our privacy statement

We keep this privacy statement under regular review and will place any updates on this website.  Paper copies of the privacy statement may also be obtained using the contact information below.

This privacy statement was last updated on 29 November 2023.

Contact information and further advice

If you have any further questions about the way in which we process personal data, or about how to exercise your rights, please contact the Head of Information Governance at:

The Scottish Parliament
Edinburgh
EH99 1SP

Telephone: 0131 348 5281

(Calls are welcome through the Text Relay service or in British Sign Language through contactSCOTLAND-BSL.)

Email: dataprotection@parliament.scot

Please contact us if you require information in another language or format

Complaints

We seek to resolve directly all complaints about how we handle personal information but you also have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner's Office at: https://ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint.

Or by phone at: 0131 348 5281