Lessons learned and future development

Findings from this report brings together in a single document information which will:

a) clarify the reasons for the chosen approach to the HWB Census

b) offer greater transparency and openness around our processes, question development and ethics approval

c) provide more information on the data protection arrangements in place

This report will be a useful source of evidence on what worked well and lessons to learn should the Scottish Government look to gather these types of data in the future. Advice and support from the ICO, the OSR and other key stakeholders will also be important. The Scottish Government plan to publish updates throughout this process.

In January 2022, the ICO asked the Scottish Government to reconsider the data controllership arrangements for the HWB Census, specifically whether the project was as joint data controllers. In February 2023, following the response by Scottish Government, the ICO notified they were satisfied that local authorities and the Scottish Government are all separate data controllers within the HWB Census model.

In July 2022, OSR published their response to their regulatory review of the Health and Wellbeing Census setting out recommendations to support trustworthiness in the statistics, to be more open and transparent, and to engage more fully with users in future.

The HWB Census 2021-22 analysis was published as experimental statistics in February 2023 alongside a technical report. The designation of the published analysis as Experimental Statistics: statistics under development means these statistics are currently being developed and have been published to involve users and stakeholders in their development, and to build in quality and understanding at an early stage.

In March 2024 the Scottish Government published the data quality and limitations report in response to the OSR recommendation to improve transparency around the quality of the HWB census data and share plans for the statistics with users.

In light of the ICO's recommendations regarding the use of the SCN for statistics and research purposes, the Scottish Government has been working to introduce enhanced technical and organisational measures to ensure that any data which contains the SCN and is processed for statistical and research purposes will have a pseudonym created. The HWB Census data used for statistical and research purposes no longer contains the SCN and a pseudonym will now be used to undertake analysis on the HWB census 2021/22 data.