Scottish Schools Adolescent Lifestyle and Behaviour Survey (SALSUS) 2018: privacy notice

The Scottish Government takes the security of your personal data very seriously. This statement sets out why we need your information, what we need and how we will use it. 

Why do we need to collect this information?  Robust evidence is crucial to both inform and evaluate policy at national and local level. Since the survey started in 1982, SALSUS has been the authoritative source of information on behaviours around smoking, drinking and drug use of Scotland’s young people, as well as providing data on aspects of their lifestyle. The survey provides the Scottish Government with key measurement data to help reduce the prevalence of smoking and drug use, and to monitor progress towards addressing harmful drinking. 

We conduct this survey as “public task in the public interest” under relevant laws, including the Local Government in Scotland Act 2003, Section 20. As part of this survey, we also need to gather, use and process sensitive personal information about you (special category data, for example ethnicity or health) including your postcode, to produce statistics and analysis of experiences of groups of the population with these characteristics. You can be confident that we ensure that this processing is proportionate and is necessary for statistical research purposes under the General Data Protection Regulation (article 9 Sections (2)(g) and (j)). 

How do we collect the information? The survey is self-completion and is completed either on paper or online. The survey sessions will be conducted in school in a mixed ability class such as PSE and will be completed under ‘exam conditions’ to ensure confidentiality.   
How is the data used? The survey is strictly confidential.  Your answers are treated with care and with full respect for your privacy.  The information is used for statistical and research purposes only and is handled in line with the Code of Practice for Official Statistics procedures and the data protection legislation.  We will not publish the survey results in a from that can reveal your identity.  Anonymised survey data is sometimes provided to other approved organisations for genuine research purposes only (never market research).  All of these ‘special dataset requests’ are very carefully assessed by the SALSUS project manager against an agreed set of criteria before deciding on whether to release the anonymised data.  These criteria are aimed at protecting the anonymity of survey respondents, whilst also maximising the use of SALSUS data and the public money invested in the survey. More complex and sensitive requests are reviewed by the Scottish Government Data Access Panel, of which the Chief Statistician is a member.  View further details.

Each data request is considered very carefully and scored on suitability. All information which you supply to us will be stored in a restricted access file.

How long your information is stored for 

All survey responses are stored securely and confidentially under the terms of data protection legislation.  The survey dataset, containing individual level survey responses but not including anything that identifies individuals, will be stored by Ipsos MORI for as long as it holds the contract to conduct the survey and also by the Scottish Government indefinitely. 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.  

Your rights 

Taking part in the survey is voluntary. As defined in the data protection legislation, you have the right to be informed about the collection and use of your personal data. The questions above outline how your data will be collected, used and stored.   In addition, if you consent to have your name, contact details and relevant answers retained for the purpose of ‘follow-up’ research projects, you also have the right to withdraw this consent at any time. This means that we will delete your name and contact details from our database so that we will not contact you again to take part in any further research. 

Contact details for Data Protection Officer as well as information on how to file a complaint with Information Commissioner’s Office can be found in our guidance on personal data. 

We have detailed above how we process the information you’ve provided us. 

If you would like further information regarding how your information is used, the SALSUS Project Team at the Scottish Government will be happy to advise: salsus@gov.scot.