Sport England Survey

[PKJ]

If I'm selected to take part in the final survey, I shall express my satisfaction with the way orienteering is run - hopefully that's the message Sport England will take home.

[andy]

Aparrantly BOF haven't heard of this and haven't handed over any database...

[geomorph]

Well, I know its being all fuddy-duddy an all that but I do hate it when they ask for FULL postcode (alongside family name).

Andy

Are you suggesting its possibly a scam?

In which case if BOF have not handed over the details then ........

edit
Just phoned ipsos-mori and they confirm the survey is genuine

[Gross]

Aparrantly BOF haven't heard of this and haven't handed over any database...

Doh........ from BOF website:

Email from Sport England - Satisfaction Survey Update

Members are now being invited by email to take part in the Sport England’s ‘Satisfaction with the Quality of Sporting Experience’ Survey (S.Q.S.E.). If you are randomly selected you will be sent an email inviting you to take part. This is not spam and is a legitimate Sport England survey.



There are two aspects to the survey:



- Satisfaction with the Quality of Sporting Experience for Club Members

- Satisfaction with the Quality of Sporting Experience for Talented Athletes

[Scott]

Well, quite.

British Orienteering has been asked to provide email contacts for some sectors of the orienteering community. Any email addresses that have been supplied have been done so under a strict Data Protection Agreement.

[DM]

Sean,

You make a good point about getting the opinions of the independents who come to some events, they'll not be on any lists held centrally. They could give valuable info about what they like/don't like and why they don't come back that could be learnt from.

We are building up a nice list of names of exactly this type of person, mainly to alert to the next race etc. But, we have said we will not pass the list on to anyone else. Maybe asking each person if we could pass their details on could get round this.

The mails we have been getting are to register for the survey, not the survey itself - not sure if this is clear to all

[andy]

Doh........ from BOF website:

Doh. BOF obviously don't know their data protection act, they have to ask for very specific authorisation to be allowed to pass on contact details to outside parties. I have not given such authorisation.

[andy]

and someone I know phoned BOF this morning and whoever they spoke to there suggested it might be a scam and that BOF are dealing with a number of complaints about it.

[Scott]

But by joining/renewing BOF membership, you agree to their privacy policy (there's a statement to that affect tucked away at the bottom of their membership/renewal forms), which includes:

We may give information about you to the following:
· People who provide a service to us or are acting as our agents, on the understanding that they will keep the information confidential.
...
If we transfer your information to a person, office, branch or organisation, we will make sure that they agree to apply the same levels of protection as we are required to apply to your information and to use your information strictly in accordance with our instructions.

I'd suspect that they could claim that Sport England/Ipsos MORI are "providing a service" to them by carrying out the survey.

[andy]

But by joining/renewing BOF membership, you agree to their privacy policy (there's a statment to that affect tucked away at the bottom of their membership/renewal forms), which includes:

We may give information about you to the following:
· People who provide a service to us or are acting as our agents, on the understanding that they will keep the information confidential.
...
If we transfer your information to a person, office, branch or organisation, we will make sure that they agree to apply the same levels of protection as we are required to apply to your information and to use your information strictly in accordance with our instructions.

I'd suspect that they could claim that Sport England/Ipsos MORI are "providing a service" to them by carrying out the survey.

What a load of crap my mum got on the phone this morning from BOF then!

Anyway, I've just called BOF and they said it was indeed legitimate and it was their chairman (I can't remember the name) who passed on the details. He's going to call me this afternoon to discuss it, but there's no way a survey aimed at English under 21s should be sent to a scottish 26 year old so I don't see this as a legitimate way of using my contact details.

[Scott]

There a pretty thorough FAQ [.doc] about the survey on the Sport England website. In answer to a couple of folks above, the sample for each sport will apparently consist of "300 general participants, 300 affiliated club members, and 300 from the talent pool". I'd guess that this mass emailing is to select the second and third of those groups; it'll be interesting to see how they select their 300 "general participants" (and I guess they'll have to work with a pretty broad definition of "talent pool").

andy: the survey isn't aimed at under 21s (it's anyone over 14, in fact) - but yes, spamming people outside of England about is a bit of a nonsense .

[andy]

andy: the survey isn't aimed at under 21s (it's anyone over 14, in fact) - but yes, spamming people outside of England about is a bit of a nonsense .

Yep, hadn't seen that! Oh well.

Anyway, that document you linked earlier states:

'If we have collected your information for a particular purpose we will not use it for anything else unless you have been informed and where relevant your permission obtained.'

As far as I can understand the data protection act my permission is required in this case. Can anyone disprove this?

[andy]

If only BOF had had the common sense to email their members themselves they might have a) got the right recipients (I'm sure they have regional information in their database) and b) avoided having to pass on any contact details to a third party and c) they wouldn't have had any/as many complaints

[Scott]

I just spotted this:

it was their chairman (I can't remember the name) who passed on the details

Neil Cameron? If so, that's pretty worrying. I'm far from convinced that the volunteer Directors should be in a position where they have access to the personal details of members, much less where they are able to share them with outside bodies. Surely that sort of access should be restricted to the more accountable - and presumably better trained - professional staff?

[andy]

I have no idea who it was, I was just told 'the chairman'.

I have had a reply about this from someone at BOF HQ who basically said what was said above about data protection etc etc.

The main thing that really annoyed me about this was the fact I was being asked to participate in a SportEngland initiave where I have no connection whatsoever to this body. Would be nice to have a governing body who recognised there was more than England, perhaps they should give the 'England' aspects of their existence to 'Orienteering England'? (or is that an entirely different can of worms?)