Justice social work statistics: privacy notice

Introduction

Justice Analytical Services is a team of statisticians, economists, operational researchers, and social researchers within the Scottish Government that work with crime and justice data.

Justice Analytical Services collect and use personal data to help the Scottish Government and the public understand crime and justice. This document gives an overview of the personal data that we collect, how we use it, and our reasons for using the data. It also tells you who to contact if you are unhappy with our use of personal data.

Contact details

Justice Analytical services is part of Scottish Government and can be contacted either by telephone, email or post:

0300 244 4000

(Central enquires - Opening hours: Monday to Friday - 8:30 am to 5 pm)

Justice_analysts@gov.scot

Scottish Government

Area 2G North

Victoria Quay

Edinburgh

EH6 6QQ

Privacy Notice

Scottish Government have statutory functions which requires the production of statistics and research. For the collection of personal data, the usual lawful basis for process under UK General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) 2018 article 6(1)e  and article 9 2(j) and Data Protection Act 2018 – Schedule 1(part4):

• to perform a task in the public interest
• processing is necessary for archiving purposes in the public interest, scientific or historical research purposes or statistical purposes

There is also more legislation that supports the collection of data within the Justice system:

• Law Reform (Miscellaneous Provisions) (Scotland) Act 1985
• Police and Fire Reform (Scotland) Act 2012
• Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007
• Social Work (Scotland) Act 1968
• Judiciary and Courts (Scotland) Act 2008
• Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973
• General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) UK 2018
• Data Protection Act 2018
• Digital Economy Act 2017

Uses for personal data

Personal data are data relating to individual people. Most of the data we hold does not include names and addresses, so individual people cannot be immediately recognised from this data. However, some of the data we collect about people, such as date of birth and gender, means that people could potentially be recognised, so this data is still called personal data. Data on groups of people, such as the total number of people with a community sentence, and data on dead people and companies are not counted as personal data.

We collect and use personal data to determine how the Scottish Government is performing on matters relating to crime and justice. The main aims of the Vision for justice in Scotland is:

• we have a society in which people feel, and are, safer in their communities
• we work together to address the underlying causes of crime and support everyone to live full and healthy lives
• we have effective, modern person centred and trauma-informed approaches to justice in which everyone can have trust, including as victims, those accused of crimes and as individuals in civil disputes
• we support rehabilitation, use custody only where there is no alternative and work to reduce reoffending and revictimisation
• we address the on-going impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and continue to renew and transform justice

The data is used in the creating of statistics and research. This information is used as evidence to support Scottish Government policies on matters relating to crime and justice. We never use personal data to make decisions about individual people.

The data are also used to answer questions from Members of the Scottish Parliament from all political parties, members of the public, and the media. This helps to ensure that the Scottish Government carries out its public duty.

No personal data about individual people are published or appear in answers to questions. In the results of our analyses that we publish or share with others in the Scottish Government, we remove information that would identify an individual.

Personal data collected

Justice Analytical Services need this information about justice social work services and the clients they are supporting, in order to:

• supports The Vision for Justice in Scotland
• determining annual criminal justice social work funding allocations for local authorities.
• supporting local authority workload planning exercises, performance management and the allocation of staff resources.
• supporting a national indicator is the Community Justice Performance Framework as part of the Community Justice Scotland Act 2016.

The data will be on justice social work clients participating in services provide by local authority justice social work teams. Most of the data on clients is initially received by local authority justice social work from the Scottish Courts and Tribunals, Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service and the client themselves.  Although justice social work teams require and collect a lot of additional information about the clients it is responsible for, not all of this information is shared with the Scottish Government. For example, names of clients or reason for sentencing are not collected.

Part of the collection is collected at aggregate level and does not have individual’s information but is split some equality groupings, such as gender or age or ethnicity.

Data collected on Community Payback Orders (CPOs) and Drug Testing and treatment Orders (DTTOs) is collected at order level and does have some personal data attached. Personal information on orders will be shared with, and processed by Justice Analytical services include:

• date of birth
• gender
• ethnicity
• employment status
• organisation personal identification
• length of order
• if a person is attending court appointed alcohol or drug or mental health treatment(s)

Who is processing the data

The source for most of this data is information held on local authority data management systems in justice social work teams within Scotland. Local authorities process this data for their own administrative purposes. Scottish Government request some data for statistical purposes.

Requirements of others

Local authorities who originally collected the data from individuals are required to provide privacy notices to its clients to explain how their personal data will be collected and used, and who it will be shared with.

Storage and retention of data

Justice Social work data within the Scottish Government are managed effectively by Scottish Government protocols. Production of statistics are covered governed by the Code of Practice for Statistics. Data is not stored or transferred  out with European Economic Area.

The data protection laws allow Scottish Government to keep the data for as long as required when personal data will be processed solely for archiving purposes in the public interest, scientific or historical research purposes. This is reviewed by Justice analytical service, for it is not uncommon for research to cover data up and over a decade.

Sharing of data

On occasion, data may be shared with individuals for statistical and research purposes when it is lawful and ethical to do so. Request for data must support the main aims of the vision for Scotland:

Possible organisations where your personal data  ay be shared with are

• other analytical teams within Scottish Government

• National Records of Scotland to carry out research relating to the national population census
• academic institutions and organisations to carry out additional research and statistical analysis which helps inform policy development and contributes to improving justice
• other public bodies who require the data in order to carry out their official functions.

Any sharing or linkage of data will be done under the strict control of Scottish Government. As outlined in Data linkage for research in Scotland factsheet. This applied to data linkage projects within Scottish Government departments.  Decisions on the sharing or linkage of data will be taken in consultation with relevant colleagues and individuals within and outwith Scottish Government as part of the Statistics Public Benefit and Privacy Panel.

Review period

This Privacy Notice will be reviewed on an annual basis. It was last updated in November 2024.

Contact information 

You can contact our Data Protection Officer at DataProtectionOfficer@gov.scot or via our postal address. Please mark the envelope ‘Data Protection Officer’.

Scottish Government

St Andrew’s House

Regent Road

Edinburgh

EH1 3DG

Other organisations will have their own data protection officers that can be contacted through their privacy notices.

Alternatively complaints about Scottish Government may be raised with the Information Commissioners Office at:

08456 30 60 60

www.ico.org.uk

The Information Commissioner,

Wycliffe House

Water Lane

Wilmslow

Cheshire

SK9 5AF