Privacy

The Wales National Travel Survey is being carried out by the National Centre for Social Research (NatCen) on behalf of Transport for Wales. The survey will collect data on travel attitudes and behaviour from people living in Wales. The results will help Transport for Wales and Welsh Government develop policies and decide how services are delivered.

This survey pilot involves around 900 households being invited to test the survey across all completion modes (online, telephone and face to face) to make sure it works well.

Transport for Wales is the data controller for the research and receives the information collected by NatCen. The information from this survey pilot will be used to check whether the survey processes work as we want them to, and to improve how the survey is run in the future. The survey will collect personal data as well as data which is not considered personal data under UK GDPR.

Your participation in the survey pilot is completely voluntary. However, your views and experiences are important. Transport for Wales will use the results of this pilot to make sure the survey works correctly so that in future action can be taken to improve transport services in Wales.

The contact details for the Wales National Travel Survey team at Transport for Wales are:

E-mail address: travelsurvey@tfw.wales

Telephone number: 03333 211 202

The contact details for this research at NatCen are: 

E-mail address: WNTS@natcen.ac.uk

Telephone number: 08006 529 296

Personal data is defined under the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR) as ‘any information relating to an identifiable person who can be directly or indirectly identified by reference to an identifier’.

Participant addresses are randomly selected from the Royal Mail’s publicly available list of all addresses in Wales, and households are sent a letter inviting you to participate. 

If you do not complete the survey online you will be invited to participate by telephone. If you wish to participate in the survey by telephone you will need to provide NatCen with your telephone number and first name or initial, and optionally your full name and email if you are content to provide them at this stage.

Your participation in the survey pilot is voluntary and if you do not wish to take part or be sent reminders then please reply to the invitation letter and your details will be removed.

If you take part in the survey, we will be collecting the following personal information for analysis purposes:

• Home address
• Age
• Disability
• Gender reassignment
• Marriage and civil partnership
• Pregnancy and maternity
• Ethnic group
• Religion or belief
• Sex
• Sexual orientation
• Welsh language ability

The survey also includes a travel diary where we ask you to record certain trips that you have made during the previous 48 hour period.

This information is collected using an Ordnance Survey map and includes the start and end location for each trip. TfW will receive the location details for each trip including postcodes and/or geographical co-ordinates.

We will only use this information for research and analysis purposes and we will not publish information on individual trips or link any trips to individuals.

Survey respondents are offered a voucher as a thank you for taking part in the survey. If you choose for the voucher to be sent to you by email, we will need to capture your email address.

As part of this pilot survey respondents are asked if they would be willing to take part in further research by Transport for Wales. Any recontact surveys would aimed at understanding your experience participating in the pilot survey or potential improvements. If you agree to take part in any recontact research, then the contact details you provide will be held by the NatCen for 1 year following the conclusion of the pilot survey.

If you raise a query or complaint and provide personal data requesting a response, the researcher will forward the request only to the relevant official and subsequently delete it. Any queries or complaints will not form part of the survey pilot data at any point.

The lawful basis for processing information in this data collection exercise is our public task; that is, exercising our official authority to undertake the core role and functions of Transport for Wales. Some of the information we collect on the survey is called ‘special category data’ (information about ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation and health) and the lawful basis for processing this information is that it is for statistical or research purposes.

While we exercise the collection of your information as part of public task, you are not obligated to participate and provide this information.

However, tests such as this are very important because they enable us to make sure that the survey works well and to undertake experiments which will improve the survey. Your participation will therefore help shape how the survey is carried out for years to come and ensure that the data collected in future years helps make sure decisions are based on sound evidence.

The information collected might be used to understand:

• how we can help people make sustainable travel choices, to contribute to our Net Zero ambitions;
• what actions we can take to remove barriers to different groups of people using public transport or active travel to move around; and
• how different people experience travel and transport across Wales
• The average distance travelled by different transport modes

Personal information provided to NatCen is always stored on a secure server. The data can only be accessed by a limited number of researchers working on this project. NatCen will only use this data for research purposes.  NatCen is accredited as meeting both ISO27001 and Cyber Essentials Plus standards.

NatCen use a survey software programme called Blaise 5 to collect data including survey responses and contact information. We have ensured that Blaise 5 is UK GDPR compliant and meets our expectations in terms of the security of any data collected via the software.

NatCen have procedures to deal with any suspected data security breaches. If a suspected breach occurs that affects your information, NatCen will report this to Transport for Wales who will notify you and any applicable regulator where we are legally required to do so.

Any personal data provided to Transport for Wales is held on secure servers, and for this project a database has been created that has access restricted only to the Wales National Travel Survey research team. The information collected will only be used to check how the survey is working, not to draw conclusions about individual people.

If the survey test results are reported on, this would be in an anonymised form. Reports would not contain any information that makes individuals identifiable. Reports would be published at tfw.wales/projects/wales-national-travel-survey

NatCen will hold personal data during the contract period, and will delete any personal data, including your contact details, within six months of the dataset sign-off. Sign-off takes place around three months after the end of the fieldwork period. This survey pilot fieldwork period runs from September 2024 to October 2024.

NatCen will provide Transport for Wales with the full dataset excluding any names, telephone numbers and email address, unless you have agreed to participate in additional surveys, whereby relevant contact details may be provided.

Under UK GDPR, in relation to the personal information you provide as part of this survey you have the following rights:

• To access a copy of your own data; 
• For us to rectify inaccuracies in that data;
• To object to or restrict processing (in certain circumstances);
• For your data to be ‘erased’ (in certain circumstances); and
• To lodge a complaint with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) who is the independent regulator for data protection.

The contact details for the Information Commissioner’s Office are:

Wycliffe House,
Water Lane,
Wilmslow,
Cheshire,
SK9 5AF

Phone: 03031 231 113

Website: www.ico.org.uk

If you have any further questions about how the data provided as part of this study will be used by Transport for Wales or wish to exercise your rights using the UK General Data Protection Regulation, please contact:

The National Travel Survey Team at Transport for Wales:

E-mail address: travelsurvey@tfw.wales

Telephone number: 03333 211 202

If you have any questions around accessing your personal information or exercising your “right to be forgotten” Transport for Wales’ Data Protection Officer can be contacted at:

Transport for Wales, 
3 Llys Cadwyn, 
Pontypridd, 
Rhondda Cynon Taf, 
CF37 4TH

Email: dataprotection@tfw.wales.