You have been asked to take part because you are standing for election as a County/County Borough Councillor or a Town/Community Councillor (or both) in the Welsh local elections on Thursday 4 May 2017.

For more information, please see the survey background.

You will be asked about:

  • whether you have stood for election or have previously served as a councillor;
  • your characteristics e.g. your gender, age, ethnicity, disability, Welsh language use; and
  • your education and employment.

In addition we will collect parts of your name, postal address and your date of birth. This information will enable us to identify who was elected following the election. This information will not be shared with Welsh Government and will not be part of the data analysis or reporting.

For more information see data confidentiality.

The Local Government (Wales) Measure introduced by Welsh Government in 2011 places a duty on every county and county borough council in Wales to conduct a survey of all candidates at both county and community or town council level during every ordinary election.

The information is used to monitor, over time, equality and diversity amongst election candidates, to ensure that local democratic procedures are inclusive and that councillors are representative of their communities.

Your participation is important, as it will allow your council to understand more about its elected representatives and whether enough is being done to engage people of all ages, circumstances and backgrounds in local democracy.

For more information see survey background.

The Local Government Data Unit ~ Wales (Data Unit Wales) are a Welsh local government company with a Board of Directors elected by the Welsh Local Government Association (WLGA). We provide a range of support services around finding and using data effectively for public service organisations such as local authorities, local service boards and third sector organisations.

Data Unit Wales are working with Welsh Government, the WLGA and One Voice Wales to carry out this survey and the analysis of results. We have been commissioned by your county/county borough council to carry out the Local election candidate survey in 2017 on their behalf because of our experience and expertise in this area.

For more information about the services we provide please visit our website www.dataunitwales.gov.uk.

For more information about the survey please contact Data Unit Wales by calling 029 2090 9500 or emailing surveys@dataunitwales.gov.uk.

No. While your county/county borough council is legally obligated to gather the information, you are not obliged to provide a response to all or any of the questions. However, the more information you can provide, the more you will be helping your local authority and Welsh Government to understand the people who stand for local elections, to ensure the process is inclusive and unbiased.

Some questions do require a response to help take you through to the next appropriate question. In these cases you will be able to choose "prefer not to answer" as your response. This will allow you to continue to the next question.

The information you provide to Data Unit Wales will be stored securely in compliance with our obligations under the Data Protection Act (1998).

A data file will be shared with your local authority and Welsh Government. This will not contain any of the personal information collected to determine which candidates were successful at election (name, postcode and date of birth).

Aggregate data (for example, the total number of county councillors that are male or female) will be published in a report by Welsh Government within 12 months of the election. These results will not identify individual responses.

For more information see data confidentiality.

If you are experiencing any issues accessing the questions online please contact Data Unit Wales by calling 029 2090 9500 or emailing surveys@dataunitwales.gov.uk.

Where possible you should respond online. You only need to complete the survey once no matter how many seats you are standing for. You can choose to complete the survey in either Welsh or English.

If you would prefer to complete the survey in another format (e.g. on paper or over the telephone) or if you have additional accessibility requirements (e.g. large print or braille) then please contact Data Unit Wales by calling 029 2090 9500 or emailing surveys@dataunitwales.gov.uk.

Yes. If you would prefer to complete the survey in another format (e.g. on paper or over the telephone) or if you have additional accessibility requirements (e.g. large print or braille) then please contact Data Unit Wales by calling 029 2090 9500 or emailing surveys@dataunitwales.gov.uk.

No. We only require one response from each candidate, regardless of the number of seats you are standing for.

No. If you decided not to stand before returning your nomination pack, or have withdrawn your nomination since returning your pack, please do not complete the survey.

Nothing. Thank you for giving your response. We will be able to remove your responses from the survey as you are no longer a candidate.

Whenever it is convenient for you. It will only take around 10 minutes to give your answers.

It will only take around 10 minutes to give your answers.

Yes. We need all the candidates from the 2017 elections to give their responses whether they were a candidate in a previous election or not.

InfoBaseCymru

InfoBaseCymru provides easy access to a wide range of information and resources for Wales. You can view and download data to help with your work.

MyLocalCouncil

MyLocalCouncil helps you to understand how your local council is performing compared to other councils across Wales.

Comparable authorities

Our comparable authorities tools allow you to work out which authorities in Wales you should be using for comparison by allowing you to choose one or more variables.


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