Maternity Care Survey 2025: privacy notice

This privacy notice explains how we collect and use your personal data, and outlines your rights under data protection law.

Read a summary of this privacy notice.

The Maternity Care Survey asks women about their most recent experience of maternity care. It covers the maternity care journey from antenatal care through to care at home after the birth. The survey is run by the Scottish Government. The Scottish Government is responsible for the planning and organisation of the survey, as well as analysing and reporting on the survey responses.

The Electronic Data Research and Innovation Service (eDRIS) at Public Health Scotland (PHS) will identify eligible women from the Scottish Linked Pregnancy and Births Dataset (SLiPBD) and use this information to produce the survey mailing list.

A survey contractor, IQVIA, has been appointed to conduct the survey fieldwork on behalf of the Scottish Government. IQVIA will send letters to eligible women inviting them to take part in the survey and will collect their responses. IQVIA is a company that collects feedback from people who have used healthcare services.

This project has been approved by the Public Benefit and Privacy Panel for Health and Social Care in Scotland and its letter of approval is available online.

This privacy notice explains how your personal data is collected and used, and your rights. 

More information about how Public Health Scotland uses patient data is available online. More information on how NHS Scotland may use your personal data is available online.

Why the survey is needed 

The Maternity Care Survey aims to provide local and national insights into the quality of maternity services from the perspective of the women using them. The specific objectives of the survey are:

For local improvement:

• to provide NHS boards with information about experiences of care in their respective areas and about variation within and between local areas, highlighting where things are going well and where they could be improved
• to provide hospital level results, where there are sufficient responses

For national improvement:

• to inform national planning and monitor performance
• to monitor and evaluate the implementation of recommendations from The best start: five-year plan for maternity and neonatal care
• to identify variation within and between local areas, including if and how, the level of positive and negative experiences have changed over time
• to highlight areas of best practice and areas for improvement
• to contribute to public awareness of maternity experiences

This survey is a means for Scottish Ministers to monitor how well they are fulfilling their duty, under Section 1 of the NHS (Scotland) Act 1978, to continue to promote a comprehensive and integrated health service that is designed to secure:

• improvement in the physical and mental health of the people of Scotland
• the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of illness, and for that purpose to provide or secure the effective provision of services in accordance with the 1978 Act

Understanding the experience of patients accessing NHS care in Scotland is required to fulfil this duty through the monitoring of care delivery and the identification of areas for improvement.

Lawful basis

We conduct this survey as a “public task in the public interest”. Our legal basis is that the use of this data is necessary:

• for reasons of public interest in the area of public health
• for providing health or social care, or treatment, or managing health or social care systems and services
• for archiving, scientific or historical research, or statistical purposes

How we got your details

Public Health Scotland (PHS) will identify eligible women from the Scottish Linked Pregnancy and Births Dataset (SLiPBD). The SLiPBD contains information about all pregnancies and births in Scotland from 2000 to present. The SLiPBD takes data from a number of different data sources, including birth and stillbirth records and records from the NHS service providing a patient’s antenatal and hospital care. All eligible women will be invited to complete the survey. You are eligible to be included if you gave birth between 1 February and 31 March 2025, are aged 17 or over at the time of giving birth and are resident in Scotland. Women who have died since giving birth, whose baby has died since birth and who are not living at the same address as their baby will not be invited to take part. 

PHS will then link information from the SLiPBD to the Community Health Index (CHI) Database to obtain names and addresses and construct the survey mailing list. They will then securely transfer your name and address to IQVIA, the contractor appointed on behalf of the Scottish Government, who will be responsible for administering the survey. The Scottish Government will not have access to any information that could identify you. IQVIA will securely transfer all survey responses to the Scottish Government for analysis but this will not include your name or address and IQVIA will remove any comments from the survey that could identify you.

The Scottish Government applied to the Public Benefit and Privacy Panel (PBPP) for Health and Social Care in Scotland seeking approval to use data from the Scottish Linked Pregnancy and Births Dataset (SLiPBD) and the CHI Database and to approach women to invite them to take part in the survey. A copy of the approval letter from the PBPP is available online.

Who has access to your personal information and how it is used

Only specifically authorised personnel within PHS and IQVIA have access to your name and address.

IQVIA has been given your name and address for the purpose of mailing you the survey and they are required to destroy this information once the survey work has been completed. They have signed a contract with the Scottish Government which stipulates this. They do not have access to any other information about you.

Staff at the NHS Central Register and PHS CHI Linkage and Indexing Service process some identifiable data on behalf of the Scottish Government by running checks to reduce the risk of sending a survey pack if the mother or the baby/babies have died. They provide this service using information from the CHI database, which is a population register used in Scotland for health care purposes. The identifiable data they will use about you is: your CHI number, your forename and surname, your sex, your date of birth, your address and postcode. The identifiable data they will use about your baby/babies is: their CHI number, their sex, their date of birth, and their address and postcode. They will also check death records.

Individual survey responses are tracked and stored using a unique survey ID number. Only specifically authorised analysts at PHS will retain a record of the identity of those who took part in the survey. PHS will have access to your survey responses to upload it onto a secure platform called the National Safe Haven to allow the Scottish Government to carry out their analysis. The individual at PHS uploading your survey response will not be able to identify you.

No access to your identity or the identity of your baby/babies, including name and address, will be given to NHS boards, the Scottish Government or any other organisation or individual. The healthcare professionals involved in your treatment or care will not know whether or not you took part in the survey.

All of the organisations involved in handling your name and address for the purpose of this survey adhere to the Information Sharing Toolkit Scotland. This brings together all of the statutory requirements, standards and best practice that apply to the handling of personal information, including requirements set out in Data Protection legislation. All transfers of personal or identifiable data are carried out securely.

Accessing information about you through data linkage 

Survey responses will be linked to other data sources held by PHS in order to undertake other analyses. This includes carrying out analysis to understand how experiences of maternity and neonatal care might have varied for different groups in Scotland and to understand how experiences of maternity care are linked to outcomes for mothers and babies. This will help the Scottish Government to evaluate how maternity and neonatal care is currently delivered and make improvements for others receiving care in the future. 

These datasets include SLiPBD and source datasets. Linkage of survey responses can only be done by specifically authorised analysts working at PHS and is only done once the necessary approvals have been granted by the relevant NHS research, ethics and governance groups. All personnel involved with this additional analysis work in line with the standards set by the Information Sharing Toolkit. 

The information that will be linked to your survey responses and shared with analysts in the Scottish Government are:

• demographic details:
  • the NHS board in the area you were living in at the end of your pregnancy
  • the NHS board that you received treatment in at the end of your pregnancy 
  • the hospital you had your baby in (if you had a hospital birth)
  • how deprived the area you were living in at the end of your pregnancy is
  • how urban or rural the area you were living in at the end of your pregnancy is 
  • your age at the end of your pregnancy 
  • your ethnicity 

This information is linked so that the analyses can compare the responses of mothers with different characteristics and to produce information on care experiences for each NHS board and hospitals in Scotland. 

• information related to your pregnancy:
  • how many weeks pregnant you were at your antenatal booking appointment 
  • how many weeks pregnant you were when you gave birth 
  • how many babies you gave birth to 
  • how many babies you have previously given birth to

This information will be linked so that analyses can look at whether experiences of care differed by different experiences of pregnancy.

• information related to your health and the health of your baby (these variables will be accessed in the National Safe Haven only and the Scottish Government will no longer have access to this data after 31 December 2026):
  • whether you experienced any tearing during labour (if you had a vaginal birth)
  • your baby’s APGAR score five minutes after they were born (this is the evaluation of your baby’s responsiveness after being born

This information will be linked to understand whether experiences of care are linked to different outcomes for mothers and babies.

• information about the treatment you received (these variables will be accessed in the National Safe Haven only and the Scottish Government will no longer have access to this data after 31 December 2026):
  • whether your labour was induced
  • any pain relief you received during labour and/or birth
  • whether you received an episiotomy during birth
  • the duration of your labour
  • how your baby was delivered

This information will be linked to understand whether your experiences of care are linked to the treatment received during birth.

How your survey responses are used

Access to your individual responses to the survey, held against the unique survey ID number, is very tightly controlled and is restricted to named individuals within the Scottish Government and IQVIA.

The survey responses and linked data will be analysed by specifically authorised Scottish Government analysts who will produce national and local reports on the results, and carry out ad-hoc analyses. No individuals will be identifiable in the responses dataset or in the reported results. The reports will be published in 2026 on the Maternity Care survey website.

The arrangements for protecting the confidentiality and privacy of individual information within the analysis are made in accordance with the Government Statistical Service Anonymisation and data confidentiality policy and PHS protocols.

The survey dataset, containing individual level survey responses but not including anything that identifies individuals, will sometimes be shared with a third party, such as a charity or academic researcher, for the purpose of undertaking additional analysis. Before any data are shared, the third party must seek the necessary approvals from the relevant NHS research, ethics and governance groups and sign a Data Processing Agreement or Data Sharing Agreement with the Scottish Government and PHS.

How your additional comments are used

Additional comments made by respondents on the survey form are shared with maternity care services for service improvement. All comments are anonymised before they are shared or analysed to ensure your identity is protected. 

This means that all personal details; all references to staff/patient/ward/unit names; and any other information which might allow an individual to be identified, such as specific conditions/treatments will be removed.

For example, if an individual had written “Doctor Smith was very nice”, this would be anonymised to “Doctor [name removed] was very nice”. Similarly, if an individual had written “I work as a midwife on Trinity Ward”, this would be anonymised to “I work as a [job title removed] on [name removed] Ward”

Anonymised additional comments from the survey will sometimes be shared with a third party, such as a charity or academic researcher, for the purpose of undertaking additional analysis. They will only be shared once appropriate approvals and governance are in place.

How long your information is stored for

All survey responses are stored securely and confidentially under the terms of Data Protection legislation.

IQVIA are required to destroy names and addresses once the survey work is complete. They will destroy paper copies of returned surveys once scanned copies are available and stored securely.

The survey response dataset, containing individual level survey responses but not including anything that identifies individuals, will be stored by IQVIA for a period of six months. The Scottish Government main retain some pseudonymised data indefinitely, subject to regular review. Access to variables via the National Safe Haven cease after 31 December 2026. This is to allow additional analysis to be carried out as required, for example time trends or more detailed analysis of particular aspects of the survey responses. This retention will be reviewed regularly to ensure that it is still appropriate to hold the data.

Scanned copies of completed questionnaires held by IQVIA will be destroyed once the Scottish Government has quality assured the survey responses dataset.

A file containing personal identifiers and the respondents’ unique survey ID numbers will be stored by PHS for as long as processing is necessary. This file will be stored separately from the individual level survey responses.

The information we will be accessing about you through data linkage will be processed by the Scottish Government on its own secure systems and in a secure environment where data for a project is uploaded and accessed called the National Safe Haven. The Scottish Government will no longer have access to the data in the National Safe Haven after 31 December 2026. 

Your rights

Taking part in the survey is voluntary. Completing the survey gives you an opportunity to provide feedback on your experience of maternity care services. You don’t have to answer any question you don’t want to. You will be asked to skip questions that don’t apply to you.

None of the health or social care professionals involved in your care will know whether or not you have filled in this survey.

If you have received a survey form and do not wish to be contacted again, please contact the free survey helpline on 0800 783 1775 and request that you are not sent a reminder.

Data Protection legislation gives rights to individuals in respect of the personal data that organisations hold about them. These include:

• the right to be informed
• the right of access
• the right to rectification
• the right to erasure
• the right to restrict processing
• the right to data portability
• the right to object
• rights in relation to automated decision making and profiling

The Information Commissioner’s Office provides more information on your rights under Data Protection legislation online.

Should you wish to contact the PHS Data Protection Officer (DPO) with respect to your information rights, please read the main PHS Privacy Notice online and email the PHS DPO at phs.dataprotection@phs.scot 

If you have contacted us and are still dissatisfied, you have the right to lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioners Office. You can find information on the data protection and personal information complaints tool online.

More information on privacy and confidentiality when using the NHS is available online. It also explains what you can do if you feel that your rights have not been respected. 

How to contact us

Please contact us if you have any questions or concerns about our privacy policy or information we hold about you. You can contact us by emailing us at: patientexperience@gov.scot 

You can also contact the SG Data Protection Officer at this email address: DataProtectionOfficer@gov.scot

More information about the Maternity Care survey is available online.