Local government candidate diversity survey 2022: data protection impact assessment

This data protection impact assessment (DPIA) reports on and assesses against any potential data protection or privacy impacts as a result of the running of the 2022 local government candidate diversity survey, and the data processing undertaken as part of the project.

This document is part of a collection


4. Stakeholder analysis and consultation

4.1 List all the groups involved in the project, and state their interest.

Group Interest
Scottish Government Constitution, International and Migration Analysis team Project is managed by a researcher and a statistician in the Constitution, International and Migration Analysis (CIMA) team, which provides analytical support to the Scottish Government's Elections policy team. Analysts within CIMA have responsibility for design and delivery of the survey, including development of all survey materials, liaising with users of the data (internal policy and equality colleagues and external users), production and quality assurance of data, and publishing the report and aggregated data on the Scottish Government website.
Scottish Government Elections Policy team CIMA is undertaking the survey on behalf of the Elections Policy Team, who are the policy leads for the work.
Candidates at the 2022 local government election All candidates standing for election at the 2022 local council elections are being invited to complete a brief voluntary questionnaire on their demographic characteristics, previous experience and any caring responsibilities they have.
Stakeholders The Electoral Management Board (EMB) and Electoral Commission have contributed to the development of the project and will help to ensure the survey reaches all candidates including putting the links to the paper and online questionnaire on their websites. Returning Officers will disseminate the diversity questionnaire, information leaflet and prepaid return envelopes with candidate nomination packs. COSLA and the Improvement Service have provided endorsement of the project, and logos for survey materials. A range of equality stakeholders helped to develop the proposals for the new data collection on the diversity of candidates and elected members in Scotland. A paper proposing a data collection during the nomination stage was published in December 2021. Stakeholders were invited to provide comments on these proposals was published in December 2021. A range of feedback was received from councils, academics and other stakeholders, which informed the final questionnaire and survey approach. We will continue to work with stakeholders to encourage participation in the survey, and when we come to reporting on the data.
APS The APS Group are the Scottish Government's publication contractor and are printing and delivering survey materials to Returning Officers at the 32 council offices in Scotland. The APS Group will also act as data processors for the Scottish Government for this survey. APS will receive posted completed paper questionnaires, undertake data entry, and securely transfer data files to the Scottish Government.
Questback Questback provide the online platform used for the survey and will therefore also be data processors for the Scottish Government for this survey. Responses submitted online will be securely stored in a password protected account on the platform. Data files of the survey responses will then be securely downloaded to a restricted access Scottish Government electronic file, and removed from Questback.
Scottish Government Data Protection Team The Scottish Government Data protection team have reviewed and provided feedback on earlier version of this DPIA.
Scottish Government Legal Team The Scottish Government Legal team have reviewed and provided feedback on earlier version of this DPIA.

4.2 Method used to consult with these groups when making the DPIA.

Candidates and members of the Scottish Population were not shown the DPIA before it was published. However, upon publication the DPIA was linked to the 'Diversity in political representation in Scotland' survey information page, a page collecting documents relating to the 2022 Local Government Candidate Diversity Survey. Through this, wider groups were informed.

If further comments are received, a revised version of the DPIA could be released. This phrase has been added to the end of this document "If anyone reading this document has any comments or suggestions for changes, please get in touch with the lead analysts from this project diverserepresentationdata@gov.scot":

The draft DPIA was circulated to the following Scottish Government colleagues: Scottish Government Data Protection team, Scottish Government Legal team, analysts in Office of the Chief Statistician (OCS) for comment before it was published. Comments were incorporated. The draft DPIA was also circulated to APS and Questback.

4.3 Method used to communicate the outcomes of the DPIA .

The 2022 local government candidate diversity survey DPIA will be published on the Scottish Government website 'Diversity in political representation in Scotland' survey information page.

Any notable changes in DPIA to be noted on website where DPIA published as well as within DPIA.

Contact

Email: diverserepresentationdata@gov.scot

Back to top