Economic and social indicators of the background of individuals that have been historically linked to probation supervision and recidivism.
Who we are:
The Central Statistics Office (CSO) is Ireland's National Statistical Institute and our purpose is to impartially collect, analyse and make available statistics about Ireland’s people, society and economy. Specifically, our mandate under the Statistics Act 1993 is "The collection, compilation, extraction and dissemination for statistical purposes of information relating to economic, social and general activities and conditions in the State" (Section 10).
At national level, CSO Official Statistics inform decision-making across a range of areas including construction, health, welfare, the environment and the economy. At European level, they provide an accurate picture of Ireland’s economic and social performance and enable comparisons between Ireland and other countries.
The CSO is also responsible for coordinating the Official Statistics of other public authorities.
The CSO is the Data Controller for the datasets used to create the economic and social indicators of the background of individuals that have been historically linked to probation supervision and recidivism.
Purpose of Processing:
The purpose of processing the probation related data is to give effect to the functions of the Central Statistics Office as set out under the Statistics Act 1993 at Section 10, these being to collect, process, analyse and disseminate information relating to economic, social and general activities and conditions of the State.
The economic and social indicators of the background of individuals that have been historically linked to probation supervision and recidivism uses pseudonymised administrative data from CSO’s administrative data centre (ADC.).
Legal basis for collection and processing:
Access by the CSO to the datasets utilised to create the economic and social indicators of the background of individuals that have been historically linked to probation supervision and recidivism is underpinned and provided for by Section[s] 11 and 30 of the Statistics act.
The exercise by the Office of its powers under these Sections of the Act is undertaken in the context of its legally designated functions, which are set out at Section 10 of the 1993 Act as iterated above.
The CSO is lawfully processing the data in the necessary performance of a task carried out in the public interest and exercise of the CSOs official authority, abiding by Article 6(1)(e) (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) of the GDPR. The CSO in the course of its duties and in meeting our mandate will undertake statistical analysis that is needed to examine and define the statistical potential of data, ensuring the ability to continuously inform society and policy.
Processing of data to produce is also undertaken in accordance with Article (9) (2) (j) processing necessary for archiving purposes in the public interest, scientific or historical research purposes or statistical purposes and Article 10 processing of personal data relating to criminal convictions and offences and is permitted under Sections 38 (1)(a), 42 (1)(c) and 54 (c) of the Data Protection Act 2018.
Categories of personal data concerned:
Personal identification characteristics ( E.g. Surname, Marital status, First name. Address, PPSN, Date of Birth, Sex, Nationality)
Justice related characteristics ( E.g. Court ID, PULSE ID, Probation service identification, Offence type, sanction type)
Economic related characteristics ( E.g. Earnings, Self-employment status, employment indicators, Union membership)
Social welfare related characteristics ( E.g. Social transfer payments related to social support E.g. unemployment benefit )
Who uses the data:
The data is received in the CSO by a dedicated business unit called the Administrative Data Centre (ADC) using secure transmission methods. The ADC is a specialist team responsible for ingesting, processing, transforming, pseudonymising and storing records in a format accessible for statistical analysis. In the pseudonymisation process, all personal identifiers are removed by the ADC. Additionally, once in receipt of administrative records, the ADC converts the identifier numbers in each dataset that remain to a Protected Identifier Key (PIK). PIKs are a unique and non-identifiable number which is internal to the CSO. Using PIKs enables the CSO to link to other pseudonymised data and analyse data for statistical purposes, while protecting the security and confidentiality of the individual data.
Access to the pseudonymised data produced via this process for analysis purposes is then provided to named statisticians within the CSO once a statistical requirement is identified and the necessary governance procedures are followed.
Statisticians who require access to identifiable data for statistical processing purposes must comply with extensive governance procedures and have their business case signed off at management board level.
Aggregated statistical outputs derived from the economic and social indicators of the background of individuals that have been historically linked to probation supervision and recidivism data will be used by, for example, academics, media, the public, policymakers as well as other national statistical organisations.
Is your personal data confidential and how long will the data be retained:
Yes, any identifiable data provided to the CSO is considered strictly confidential and may not be shared with any third party. This is underpinned by the Statistics Act, 1993.
The economic and social indicators of the background of individuals that have been historically linked to probation supervision and recidivism data will be retained for an indefinite period once it is anonymised to remove any personal identifying characteristics.
The CSO is continuously evaluating the statistical requirements to balance the interests of data subjects with the requirements for official statistics and retention periods. As part of this evaluation, recommendations may be made during periodic reviews in relation to the retention of data.
Does CSO share personal data with any third parties:
The CSO will never share any personal data with any third parties – State, commercial or otherwise. In certain specific cases, pseudonymised versions of data 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:
However, because your data is processed for statistical purposes, these rights may be limited in accordance with Article 89 of the GDPR. 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 CCR data, you may contact the CSO Data Protection Officer on the details set out below.
The sources and categories of your personal data, where the data has not been collected directly from you:
For the analysis on re-offending CSO uses administrative data in its statistical programs to develop indicators of recidivism and the associated characteristics of re-offenders. The data is provided by several government departments via CSO’s administrative data centre (ADC). The sources for this project will utilise:
For further information on this survey, your Data Protection rights and how your data is used, please contact:
Felix Coleman, Crime and criminal justice statistics, Social analysis, CSO, Skehard Road, Cork T12 X00E.
Tel +353 (21) 453 5000 E-mail: felix.coleman@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 e-mail: info@dataprotection.ie
By phone: 0761 104 800 or lo-call number 1890 252 231
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