APS census identification policies
Dear Australian Public Service Commission,
Are there any policies relating to circumstances where a participant in the APS census may be identified?
It is my limited understanding that each person is sent a link to the APS census and each link contains a string that is unique to each person. Can this link be used to identify the participant? Are departments able to request that the APSC determine who has submitted particular responses?
Yours faithfully,
Scott P
OFFICIAL
Dear Scott P
Thank you for your email to the Australian Public Service Commission’s
Freedom of Information (FOI) team.
We have referred your enquiry to the APS Employee Census Team, who are
able to respond to your request administratively outside the FOI process.
You can contact the team directly at [1][email address].
Unless we hear back from you by close of business Friday, 1 April 2022, we
will treat your request under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 with the
Commission FOI team as withdrawn.
Regards
FOI OFFICER
Legal Services
Australian Public Service Commission
Level 4, B Block, Treasury Building, Parkes Place West, PARKES ACT 2600
GPO Box 3176 CANBERRA ACT 2601
t: 02 6202 3500 w: [2]www.apsc.gov.au
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This email and any attachments may contain confidential or legally
privileged information, and neither are waived or lost if the email has
been sent in error. If you have received this email in error, please
delete it (including any copies) and notify the sender. Please consult
with APSC Legal Services before using disclosing any part of this email or
attachments to a third party.
OFFICIAL
Dear Scott P,
Thank you for contacting the Commission regarding the APS Employee Census.
The Commission has specific policies and procedures in place to prevent
the identification of individual responses to the APS Employee Census.
To facilitate the administration of the APS Employee Census, employees are
invited to participate through a unique link to the survey. Agencies
identify their staff for participation and provide the Commission with the
names, Australian Government Staff (AGS) numbers and email addresses for
the purposes of sending a survey invitation to all APS employees. The
Commission’s external service provider, Engine, use this information to
send out the survey invitations. Only Engine are able to link an
employee’s response with personal identifiers. Any datasets of Employee
Census responses that Engine provide to the Commission are de-identified.
These datasets do not include employees’ names, email addresses and AGS
numbers.
The Commission and Engine report de-identified and aggregated Employee
Census results and make these available to agencies and other parties.
Results are reported for groups of respondents. Groups can be formed by a
combination of demographic information (such as age group, gender or
classification level) and / or where the respondent works within an
agency.
The APSC may provide agencies and external parties with de-identified
datasets of results. Responses within these datasets will not be
reasonably attributable to any specific individual. In order to obtain any
dataset of de-identified data, agencies and other parties agree to store
the data in a manner consistent with the Australian Privacy Principles.
Free-text comments provided to questions within the APS Employee Census
are reported verbatim and made available to agencies. However, free-text
comments are only attributable to particular groups where there are 30 or
more comments from members of that group. For example, if an
organisational unit has less than 30 respondents the free-text questions
will not be shown for that work group.
If required by law, or a court or tribunal order, it may be possible for
Engine to re-identify an individual’s unit record and make it available
for the required disclosure. Re-identification is possible for up to 18
months after the Employee Census period.
For further information, please review Part B of the Commission’s
[1]Privacy Policy or the [2]Participant Information Sheet for the 2022 APS
Employee Census.
Regards
APS Surveys Team
Workforce Research and Analysis Team, Strategic Policy and Research Group
Australian Public Service Commission
Level 4, B Block, Treasury Building, Parkes Place West, PARKES ACT 2600
GPO Box 3176 CANBERRA ACT 2601
t: 1800 464 926 w: [3]www.apsc.gov.au
[4]cid:image006.jpg@01D811F0.C81C49F0
From: FOI <[5][email address]>
Sent: Wednesday, 23 March 2022 11:03 AM
To: Scott p <[6][FOI #8625 email]>
Cc: APSSurveys <[7][email address]>
Subject: RE: Freedom of Information request - APS census identification
policies [SEC=OFFICIAL]
OFFICIAL
Dear Scott P
Thank you for your email to the Australian Public Service Commission’s
Freedom of Information (FOI) team.
We have referred your enquiry to the APS Employee Census Team, who are
able to respond to your request administratively outside the FOI process.
You can contact the team directly at [8][email address].
Unless we hear back from you by close of business Friday, 1 April 2022, we
will treat your request under the Freedom of Information Act 1982 with the
Commission FOI team as withdrawn.
Regards
FOI OFFICER
Legal Services
Australian Public Service Commission
Level 4, B Block, Treasury Building, Parkes Place West, PARKES ACT 2600
GPO Box 3176 CANBERRA ACT 2601
t: 02 6202 3500 w: [9]www.apsc.gov.au
[10]three hexagons[11]twitter icon [12]facebook
icon
This email and any attachments may contain confidential or legally
privileged information, and neither are waived or lost if the email has
been sent in error. If you have received this email in error, please
delete it (including any copies) and notify the sender. Please consult
with APSC Legal Services before using disclosing any part of this email or
attachments to a third party.