Back to Top

 Skip navigation

Survey Name

Safety of the Person Survey

Survey purpose and legal basis

Under Data Protection legislation, individuals have a number of rights in relation to the personal data an organisation holds about them. The purpose of this notice is to inform you, as a Safety of the Person survey participant, about the data processed by the CSO, how these data are handled and what your rights are.

The Safety of the Person Survey (SOP) is a voluntary survey carried out by the Central Statistics Office under Section 24 of the Statistics Act, 1993.

The purpose of the SOP is to provide data on the personal safety of individuals in Ireland. Data that are collected include aspects such as; harassment, mistreatment, and attitudes towards these topics. Demographic details including date of birth, gender and citizenship are also collected.

Any information gathered to inform this survey is subject to the restrictions of use and prohibition of disclosure under sections 32, 33, and 34 of the Statistics Act, 1993.

Who uses the results?

The 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. Anonymised survey information may also be provided to other government departments, approved organisations and approved researchers for statistical purposes only.

The data will be used extensively by relevant stakeholders, national agencies, Government Departments and the media.

Is your personal data confidential and how long will the data be retained?

Yes, all information supplied to the CSO is treated as strictly confidential. The confidentiality of data is provided for under sections 32, 33, and 34 of the Statistics Act, 1993, which sets stringent confidentiality standards. These include the use of data for statistical purposes only, and the non-disclosure of data in an identifiable form.

The personal data collected to inform this survey will be stored for a maximum of four months. In addition, the response to the questionnaire will immediately be separated from the personal identifiers, providing further anonymity to responses.

The survey data will be securely held for a maximum of ten years from the date of issue of this survey and can only be used for statistical purposes.

The sources and categories of your personal data, where the data has not been collected directly from you:

N/a

For further information on this survey, your Data Protection rights and how your data is used please contact:

Helen McGrath, Social Analysis Division, Central Statistics Office, Skehard Road, Cork, T12 X00E.

Tel: +(353) 21 453 5108 E-mail: sop@cso.ie

Data Protection Information:

Under the General Data Protection Regulation, you have the following rights:

  • The right to lodge a complaint with the Data Protection Commission. Contact details: Office of the Data Protection Commission, 21 Fitzwilliam Square South, Dublin 2, D02 RD28, Ireland.
  • The right to request access, rectification, erasure, restriction or to object to the processing of your personal data.

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 fulfillment of those purposes.

Central Statistics Office Data Protection Officer Contact Details: