Mid-term Evaluation of the National Forest 2023-2025: site staff, volunteer and user qualitative fieldwork

The Welsh Government has commissioned Wavehill to undertake a mid-term evaluation of the National Forest for Wales. The evaluation broadly aims to reflect on National Forestry funding, support and delivery mechanisms to inform future delivery, provide insight into views and experiences of the National Forest and consider how impact of the National Forest can be assessed going forward.

As part of this, Wavehill will be undertaking online and telephone interviews and online focus groups with:

• site staff such as Ranger teams

• site volunteers (including ‘friends of’ groups)

• staff from organisations who have an agreement with the site to arrange activities groups.

The Welsh Government is the data controller for the research. Wavehill will delete any personal data provided in the discussions and anonymise any raw data before it is shared with the Welsh Government.

The information collected during the project will be included in a report published on the Welsh Government website.

Your participation in this research is completely voluntary. However, your views and experiences are important in order to help inform Welsh Government policies.

The contact for this research at Wavehill is Andy Parkinson

E-mail address: andy.parkinson@wavehill.com

Telephone number: 0330 1228658

PRIVACY NOTICE

What personal data do we hold and where do we get this information?

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’.

Wavehill have been provided with your contact details. This is usually your email address to arrange an online interview but if you have opted to do a telephone interview instead, then it will be your phone number and in some cases your email address as well (in order to discuss suitable times to arrange the telephone interview). Your details have been provided in one of the following ways:

• If you are a member of site management staff then you have given permission to site management staff to share your details with Wavehill.

• If you are a volunteer on site, then you have given permission to site management staff or the lead of your volunteer group to share your details with Wavehill.

• If you are a member of staff from an organisation that arranges activities on site then you have given permission to site management staff or the lead from your organisation to share your details with Wavehill.

Your participation is voluntary. If you do not wish to take part or be sent reminders at any stage of the research then please reply to the invitation email and you will no longer be contacted for this research.

Taking part in an interview does not require you to provide any additional personal information other than, in the case of online focus groups, your image if you agree to a focus group being video recorded.

We may wish to video record online focus groups for operational reasons. We will make this clear to you before the discussion begins, and you will have the opportunity to tell us if you are not happy for the discussion to be recorded. A focus group will only be recorded if no one objects. If discussions are recorded, personal data will be removed during the process of transcribing. Recordings will be deleted as soon as this process is completed. Where interviews or focus groups are not recorded written notes will be taken at the time. Personal data will not be included in written notes prepared during or following a discussion.

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 from the research data.

What is the lawful basis for using your data?

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 the Welsh Government.

Participation is completely voluntary. Research studies such as this are important for the Welsh Government to collect information and actionable evidence about its ability to deliver government priorities.

How secure is your personal data?

Personal information provided to Wavehill is always stored on a secure server. The data can only be accessed by a limited number of researchers working on this project. Wavehill will only use this data for research purposes. Wavehill has cyber essentials certification.

Wavehill has procedures to deal with any suspected data security breaches. If a suspected breach occurs, Wavehill will report this to the Welsh Government who will notify you and any applicable regulator where we are legally required to do so.

Wavehill will use the information gathered to produce a report that will be published on the Welsh Government website. This report will not include any information that could be used to identify individual participants.

How long do we keep your personal data?

Wavehill will hold personal data during the contract period, and any personal data will be deleted by Wavehill three months after the end of the contract. This includes your contact details.

Individual rights

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

• 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 our independent regulator for data protection.

The contact details for the Information Commissioner’s Office are: Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow, Cheshire, SK9 5AF. Phone: 0303 123 1113. Website: www.ico.org.uk

Further Information

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

Name: Aimee Krishan

E-mail address: Aimee.Krishan@gov.wales 

Telephone number: 0300 025 9321

The Welsh Government’s Data Protection Officer can be contacted at:

Welsh Government, Cathays Park, Cardiff, CF10 3NQ, Email: DataProtectionOfficer@gov.wales.

Int. Ref.  823-24