Survey Name:
Deaths Registration.
Survey purpose and legal basis:
All deaths that occur in the State must be registered within 3 months of the date thereof. The purpose of using the deaths administrative data is to provide the public, government agencies, researchers etc with the number of deaths based on either date of registration of the deaths or year of occurrence of the birth. This statistical data informs planning and political decision making.
Deaths data is prepared by the Central Statistics Office for the Minister for Social Protection in accordance with the provisions of section 2 of the Vital Statistics and Births, Deaths and Marriages Registration Act 1952 (as amended by section 7 of the Births, Deaths and Marriages Registration Act 1972) and will remain in force, pending commencement of section 4 of the Civil Registration Act 2004.
The legal basis for processing is underpinned by Articles 6 (1) (c) (for certain variables/outputs) and 6 (1) (e) of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Article 6 (1) (c) relates to processing necessary for compliance with a legal obligation to which the controller is subject, while Article 6 (1) (e) concerns processing necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority vested in the controller.
Certain data variables received from General Registration Office (GRO) contain special category data and, in these instances, processing is in line with Article 9 (2) (g) reasons of substantial public interest and 9 (2) (j) processing is necessary for archiving purposes in the public interest, scientific or historical research purposes or statistical purposes.
Processing of General Registration Office (GRO) data is also permitted under Sections 38 (1)(a), 42 (1)(c) and 54 (c) of the Data Protection Act 2018.
Moreover, if a death is due to unnatural causes, then an inquest must be held by law. A Form 104 is issued by the CSO to the Gardaí in respect of most inquest cases.
This form is sent to the Divisional Inspector of the relevant location where the death occurred and is then redirected to the Garda that attended the scene of the death. The Form 104 collects additional information on the circumstances/location of the death and the information returned on this form is strictly confidential under the Statistics Act 1993.
The Garda completing the Form 104 provides his/her opinion as to whether the death was an accident, homicide, suicide or undetermined. That information is taken into account when the CSO assigns a statistical code for cause of death.
Access by the CSO to the Form 104 data is underpinned and provided for by Section 24 of the Statistics Act 1993 - ‘Invitation to provide information on a voluntary basis’. The exercise by the Office of its powers under Section 24 of the Act is undertaken in the context of its legally designated functions, which are set out at Section 10 of the 1993 Act.
Form 104 data is processed by the Central Statistics Office to aid in the coding of death events.
The legal basis for processing is underpinned by Articles 6 (1) (c) (for certain variables/outputs) and 6 (1) (e) of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Article 6 (1) (c) relates to processing necessary for compliance with a legal obligation to which the controller is subject, while Article 6 (1) (e) concerns processing necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority vested in the controller.
Processing of Garda Síochána data is also permitted under Sections 38 (1)(a), 42 (1)(c) and 54 (c) of the Data Protection Act 2018.
Categories of personal data concerned for General Registration Office (GRO) data and Garda Síochána data:
Personal data related to the deceased, medical practitioner, coroner, registrar, spouse, and parents/guardians including the following principal variables: Date of death, Address of residence of deceased, Place of death, Cause of death, Occupation of deceased, Age of deceased, Sex of deceased, Marital Status of deceased.
Personal data relating to Garda personnel including additional information received from An Garda Síochána to supplement the information on the Coroner’s Certificate related to the circumstances/location of the death.
Who uses the data:
Our results are only ever made available to the public in aggregate form, and we make sure that it is impossible for individuals to be identified.
There is wide national usage from other Government Departments, Demographic and Health Researchers, Professional Bodies and the Public. International users include Eurostat and the World Health Organisation.
Is your personal data confidential and how long will the data be retained?
All information supplied to the CSO is treated as strictly confidential. The Statistics Act, 1993 sets stringent confidentiality standards: Information collected may be used only for statistical purposes and no details that might be related to an identifiable person may be divulged to any other government department or body. Data without identifiers is retained for years 1986 to 2006. Data with identifiers is retained from 2007. This data will be retained indefinitely and used solely for statistical purposes.
Does CSO share personal data with any third parties:
No. The CSO will never share any personal data with any third parties – State, commercial or otherwise which is collected under the Statistics Act, 1993.
In certain specific cases, Research Microdata files (RMF) may be made available to approved researchers under strict researcher protocols and detailed governance procedures.
One of the core principles governing the operation of National Statistical Institutes is the protection of the confidentiality of all information supplied by data providers. The CSO’s ability to compile Official Statistics is based on the extent to which individuals and companies trust the CSO with sensitive information and the CSO’s guarantee of confidentiality for all data providers is built on the fundamental requirement of non-disclosure of confidential data as set out in national and EU statistical legislation.
What rights do you as the data subject have:
The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) confers the following rights on individuals:
An individual right of access to the personal data furnished by a Public Service Bodies (PSB) is possible. Data Subjects seeking to exercise GDPR rights over their personal data may wish to engage with the source PSB as the controller of first instance.
Should you wish to exercise these rights directly via the CSO, because your data is processed for statistical purposes, certain limitations in accordance with Article 89 of the GDPR may apply. This is due to the fact that the exercise of any of these rights may render impossible, or seriously impair, the achievement of the statistical processing and such restriction maybe necessary for the fulfilment of those purposes. Should you wish to exercise your rights in respect of your GRO data, you may contact the CSO Data Protection Officer on the details set out below. Applications for access will be assessed on a case-by-case basis. It is the intention of the Office to vindicate these rights wherever possible.
The sources and categories of your personal data, where the data has not been collected directly from you:
The General Registration Office (GRO) and An Garda Síochána
Examples of variables being received by the CSO are outlined under categories of personal data above.
For further information on this survey, your Data Protection rights and how your data is used, please contact:
Seán O'Connor, Statistician, Administrative Data Governance & Analysis, Central Statistics Office, Skehard Road, Cork T12 X00E
Tel +353 (21) 453 5295 Email: vitalstats@cso.ie
Right to lodge a complaint to the Supervisory Authority
Under the General Data Protection Regulation, you have a right to lodge a complaint with the Data Protection Commission if you consider that processing of your personal data is contrary to data protection law. The contact details of the Commission are:
By post: Office of the Data Protection Commission, 21 Fitzwilliam Square South, Dublin 2, D02 RD28, Ireland.
By email: info@dataprotection.ie
By phone: 01 7650100 / 1800 437 737
Online: https://www.dataprotection.ie/
Contact details of the Data Protection Officer:
The CSO’s Data Protection Officer (DPO) is responsible for overseeing questions in relation to this Transparency Notice (contact details below). If you have any questions about this statement, including any request to exercise your legal rights, please contact or send them to the CSO DPO:
Data Protection Officer,
Central Statistics Office,
Skehard Road,
T12 X00E
Tel: 021-453 5000
Email: dpo@cso.ie
For further information:
https://www.cso.ie/en/methods/administrativedata/administrativedatafaq/