Guidance

Privacy notice: Partnerships for People and Place – evaluation and mapping

Published 12 July 2021

Applies to England

The following is to explain your rights and give you the information you are entitled to under the UK General Data Protection Regulation and Data Protection Act 2018.

1. The identity and contact details of the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) and our Data Protection Officer

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

2. Why we are collecting the data

Your personal data is being collected to deliver the Partnerships for People and Place evaluation.  

The Partnerships for People and Place programme aims to test whether closer working between different parts of central government and local places can bring measurable benefits to local communities and people. The Partnerships for People and Place evaluation will help build an understanding of the barriers to improved government co-ordination in pilot locations and the impact the programme has had on the outcomes targeted in pilot locations. By collecting data from those participating in the programme, we will be able to understand who has been assisted by the programme and measure the effectiveness and impact of the programme for different recipients. The evaluation results and analysis will be shared with policy colleagues across government to provide national and local policy makers with an evidence base on which to design better services and achieve better outcomes.

The sharing and processing of personal data is for evaluation and research purposes only - it will not be used for operational purposes or to make decisions that affect individuals.

DLUHC is commissioning an independent evaluation organisation, Ipsos UK and their partners Grant Thornton, to receive data from the project areas and assess impact of the programme. DLUHC will ensure that any organisation processing personal information on behalf of the department will meet the appropriate security and data protection legal requirements and any transfer of personal data from one organisation to another will be done securely. The evaluation will involve: 

• Qualitative interviews with central government staff, local authority staff and people with experience of the outcomes/interventions of focus, which will require limited sharing of personal information (i.e. name, email address for staff, and name for people experiencing the outcome). Ipsos UK may audio record interviews, capturing personal information in the form of individual voices. This sharing is also covered in the agreement with the supplier carrying out the evaluation. The evaluation contractors, Ipsos UK and Grant Thornton, will lead this part of the data collection, working with participating local authorities.

• Collecting data to measure impact on individual outcomes of the targeted area/cohort. This may involve personal information being shared with the evaluators, including special category data (e.g. health). Each local authority will help in collecting this data and pass it on to the evaluation contractors, Ipsos UK and Grant Thornton, where possible, in an anonymised format. The local authorities will work with DLUHC and the evaluation contractors to set out what data they will collect to measure a change in their identified outcome. Ipsos UK may audio record interviews, capturing personal information in the form of individual voices. Different areas will be targeting different person-level outcomes. Personal data is likely to include:

  • Name
  • Date of birth
  • Address
  • Gender
• Questionnaire data and outcome data will depend on the outcome and intervention agreed by each local authority. With agreement from the data subject, this data may include special category data, such as data related to a person’s health.
• Names and email addresses may also be shared between and with other government departments who are partnering DLUHC on the programme to assist with collaboration in line with the programme’s core aim.
• Ipsos UK are subcontracting Grant Thornton to deliver the programme’s financial mapping exercise. This exercise seeks to map the current funding to local authorities and the outcomes that funding seeks to achieve. There will be two strands to the exercise:

1. Cross-government funding at a local authority level (all funding in scope);

2. Detailed ward level mapping of a particular outcome (e.g. education), including non-government funding.

For the second stage of the exercise, local authorities will be required to supply local financial data to Grant Thornton. 

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 set out below. The lawful basis that applies to this processing is:  

• Article 6(1)(e) of the UK GDPR: to process the personal data provided by local authorities and individuals themselves (those participating in the programme within central government, local authorities and those experiencing the outcomes/interventions of focus). The processing is necessary for the performance of a task in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority, notably the delivery of the programme’s evaluation.
• Chapter 2 Section 8(d) of the DPA 2018: processing is necessary for the exercise of a function of the Crown, a Minister of the Crown or a government department.
• common law powers to process personal data i.e. powers that Ministers can exercise in the same way as natural persons without specific statutory authority.
• Article 9(2)(g) of the UK GDPR: the processing of special category personal data is necessary for reasons of substantial public interest
• Section 10(3) and paragraph 6, part 2 of schedule 1 to the DPA 2018: the processing is necessary for reasons of substantial public interest and its purpose is the exercise of a function of the Crown, a Minister of the Crown or a government department,
• Article 10 of the UK GDPR: the processing of criminal offence data will be carried out under the control of official authority or under domestic law
• Section 10 (5) and paragraph 6, part 2 of Schedule 1 to the DPA 2018 (as above)

4. With whom we will be sharing the data

The programme involves data sharing from local authorities to DLUHC’s evaluation contractors, Ipsos UK, and their subcontractors Grant Thornton, and DLUHC. See Section 2 above. Names and email addresses may also be shared between and with other government departments who are partnering with DLUHC on the programme to facilitate the sharing of learnings and dissemination of findings.

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

Your personal data will be securely destroyed once there is no further justification to retain it – we expect this to be January 2024. Data that does not include identifying information may be stored for up to six years by DLUHC in line with the Statute of Limitations (in case of a complaint) and potentially for use in further research. Aggregated data may be retained indefinitely for the purpose of research and statistics.

6. 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:  

1. know that we are using your personal data

2. see what data we have about you

3. ask to have your data corrected, and to ask how we check the information we hold is accurate

4. complain to the ICO (see below)

In some circumstances you may also have the right to withdraw from us having or using your data, to have all data about you deleted, or to object to particular use of your data. We will tell you when these rights apply. 

7. Sending data overseas

Your personal data processed for this programme will be collected and stored by local authorities, DLUHC’s contractors, and other government departments and agencies, all of whom operate within the UK. We do not expect data to be stored outside the UK. Digital platforms for collaboration purposes may be used to further the programme’s aims and objectives. Some of these platforms have servers overseas. Where these platforms are used, individuals participating will be reminded not to share personal data on the platform.

8. Automated decision making

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

9. Storage, security and data management

Your personal data will be stored in a secure government IT system and/or a secure third-party system used by Ipsos UK and Grant Thornton.

10. Complaints and more information

When we ask you for information, we will keep to the law, including the Data Protection Act 2018 and the 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@levellingup.gov.uk.

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

The Information Commissioner's Office (ICO)
Wycliffe House  
Water Lane  
Wilmslow, Cheshire,  
SK9 5AF  

 
Telephone: 0303 123 1113 or 01625 545 745 ICO website