Guidance

Government Communications Data Collection Privacy Notice

Updated 30 April 2025

© Crown copyright 2025

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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/privacy-notice-for-gcs-data-collection-2024/privacy-notice-for-government-communication-service-gcs-data-collection-2024

Privacy Notice for Government Communications Data Collection 2025

This notice sets out how we will use your personal data, and your rights. It is made under Articles 13 and/or 14 of the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR).

Your Data

Purpose

The purpose for which we are processing your personal data is to understand the structure and composition of the Government Communications profession.

The 2025 Government Communications Data Collection is an annual data collection that provides detailed insight into the skills and capabilities of the c.6,000 communications professionals across government. This strategic exercise serves as a single source of truth, enabling us to understand the expertise and capability across the profession and identify where we need to invest in skills development and talent retention. 

The data provided will directly support:

  • Strategic workforce planning across the Government Communications profession
  • Location strategy implementation
  • Salary benchmarking to attract and retain top talent
  • Professional development planning, identifying capability gaps and establishing strategic Learning and Development priorities
  • Resource allocation to meet the changing communication landscape
  • Building modern and agile communication teams

The data

We will process the following personal data for each person and role in the cross-government Government Communications profession:   

  • Record Key - A unique identifying number used by the organisation for each person / role.
  • Organisation (Full Name) - The full name of the organisation (department, ALB, or other) that the person / role is currently working for.
  • Home Organisation - The home organisation of the person/role if the person is on loan.
  • Team Name - The name of the team assigned to the person / role.
  • Role Title - The job title assigned to the person / role.
  • Contract Type - The type of contract assigned to the person / role.
  • Vacancy Status - Is the role vacant?
  • Full-Time Equivalent
  • Proportion of Time Performing Communications Activities
  • Substantive Grade - The substantive grade mapped to the Civil Service equivalent grade.
  • Current Grade - The current serving grade, either substantive or temporarily promoted, mapped to the Civil Service equivalent grade.
  • MCOM Discipline of Current Role - The primary profession of the post occupied by the person.
  • Job Role - The type of communications work performed by the role.
  • Gross Salary - The annual salary inclusive of basic pay (including consolidated performance pay).
  • Salary Allowance - The annual salary allowance for the role.
  • Security Clearance (required for Job Role)
  • Job Postcode - The postcode of the government establishment or other workplace where the person is employed or based.
  • Accreditation with a Professional Body
  • Talent Scheme - The most recent talent scheme a person participated in, if any.
  • Embedded Communications Role? - Is the role an embedded communications role or within a communications team?
  • Civil Servant Role or Public Servant Role? - Is the role a civil servant role or a public servant role?

We will also collect the email addresses of those submitting data; this information will only be used to contact people about the datasets they have submitted.  Where possible we will collect shared mailbox addresses.

The legal basis for processing your personal data is that processing is necessary for the performance of a task carried out in the public interest or in the exercise of official authority vested in the controller.  In this case that is the Cabinet Office’s responsibility for running the Government Communication Service.   

Recipients

Your personal data will be aggregated during the analysis phase of the project (you will not be identifiable), and shared by us with your employing Organisation and other Government organisations as we feel appropriate.
As part of the project, we may use AI technology to support the analysis of the data collected. Your personal data will never be used to make automated decision-making about you.

Our AI partners are Google Gemini and GCS Assist. Your personal data will never be used by these organisations to train their language models.

As your personal data will be stored on our IT infrastructure it will also be shared with our data processors who provide email, and document management and storage services.

Retention

We will keep the data on organisational composition until the next such data collection. This is so we always possess a dataset of the most current state of the Government Communications profession.  We will produce aggregate statistical products which do not allow individuals to be identified; such products will persist indefinitely. The individual level data will be deleted when a more current dataset has been collected, estimated to be September 2026.   

Your personal data was obtained by us from your employing Government Organisation.

Your Rights

You have the right to request information about how your personal data are processed, and to request a copy of that personal data.

You have the right to request that any inaccuracies in your personal data are rectified without delay.

You have the right to request that any incomplete personal data are completed, including by means of a supplementary statement.

You have the right to request that your personal data are erased if there is no longer a justification for them to be processed.

You have the right in certain circumstances (for example, where accuracy is contested) to request that the processing of your personal data is restricted.

You have the right to object to the processing of your personal data where it is processed for direct marketing purposes.

You have the right to object to the processing of your personal data.

You have the right to request a copy of any personal data you have provided, and for this to be provided in a structured, commonly used and machine-readable format.

International Transfers

As your personal data is stored on our Corporate IT infrastructure, and shared with our data processors, it may be transferred and stored securely outside the UK. Where that is the case it will be subject to equivalent legal protection through an adequacy decision, reliance on Standard Contractual Clauses, or reliance on a UK International Data Transfer Agreement.

Complaints

If you consider that your personal data has been misused or mishandled, you may make a complaint to the Information Commissioner, who is an independent regulator.  The Information Commissioner can be contacted at: 

Information Commissioner’s Office,
Wycliffe House,
Water Lane,
Wilmslow,
Cheshire,
SK9 5AF,
or 0303 123 1113, or icocasework@ico.org.uk. 

Any complaint to the Information Commissioner is without prejudice to your right to seek redress through the courts.

Contact Details

The data controller for your personal data is the Cabinet Office. The contact details for the data controller are:

Cabinet Office,
70 Whitehall,
London,
SW1A 2AS,
or 0207 276 1234,

or you can use this webform.

The contact details for the data controller’s Data Protection Officer are: dpo@cabinetoffice.gov.uk.

The Data Protection Officer provides independent advice and monitoring of Cabinet Office’s use of personal information.

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