Sexual Violence Survey
This notice explains how the Central Statistics Office (CSO) uses personal data in the Sexual Violence Survey (SVS). This notice also provides information, as required by the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
The SVS is a voluntary survey carried out by the CSO under Section 24 of the Statistics Act, 1993. The purpose of the SVS 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. This survey was conducted under a different name (Safety of the Person Survey) to protect the confidentiality of respondents and followed best practice for such sensitive surveys.
Information obtained in the SVS shall be subject to the restrictions on use and prohibition on disclosure of information specified in sections 32, 33, 34 and 35 of the Statistics Act, 1993.
The personal data collected will solely be used for the purposes of the SVS. It will be stored and retained in line with the provisions of the GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018. The legal basis for the processing is Article 6(1)(e) of the GDPR, and Section 38(1)(b) of the Data Protection Act 2018 – i.e. processing for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority.
The results of the SVS will only ever be 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.
Yes. 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 or business undertaking may be divulged to any other Government Department or body.
The personal data collected to inform the svs will be stored for a maximum of four months. In addition, the response to the questionnaire will immediately be separated from 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.
N/a
Helen McGrath, Social Analysis Division, Central Statistics Office, Skehard Road, Cork, T12 X00E.
Tel: +(353) 21 453 5108 E-mail: svs@cso.ie
Under the General Data Protection Regulation, you have the following rights:
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.
