The Census is set to be inflicted on us on Census Day / Night - Saturday 27th March 2011
Since it has, unfortunately, become impossible to trust this or any future Government with our Data Protection Act 1998 section 2 Sensitive Personal Data, the forthcoming Census, which appears to be a huge increase in the amount of bureaucratic snooping compared with the previous Census, is going to be very controversial.
SInce the data is being collected by US Defense Contractor Lockheed-Martin to data process, it will inevitably be handed over to the US Government, by hook or by crook, regardless of any legal contract signed with this weak Labour Government.
Why has the Whitehall bureaucracy been allowed to ignore the Principles of Data Minimization recommended by the Thomas and Walport Data Sharing Review?
Will the political Opposition manage to get any of these unnecessarily intrusive questions removed from this Draft Statutory Instrument, or will they just rubber stamp it "on the nod", as usual ?
Most of the potential benefits to members of the public, in terms of planning of future government services, simply needs just the number of people living in a particular area, and does not justify these intrusive Census questions
How many of these Sensitive Personal Data Questions about Names and Addresses, Medical Data, Disabilities, Racial Ethnicity, Religious Beliefs, Recent Job History, Accommodation Details and Familial Relationships. will you try to avoid or deliberately lie about ?
Remember that Census Data is not "anonymised".at the point of collection.
[UPDATED on 30th October to include this section on the removal of the supposedly absolute confidentiality of the census data]:
Remember also that, unlike previous Censuses, the supposedly cast iron guarantee of the Census Act 1920 to prevent the sharing of this supposedly confidential census data with the Police or Intelligence agencies or the Tax authorities etc. has now been abolished by a combination of the general "get out of jail for incompetent bureaucrats" clause introduced in by the amendments sneaked in to the Census Confidentiality Act 1991
1 Unlawful disclosure of information
In section 8 of the [1920 c. 41.] Census Act 1920 (penalties), the following subsections shall be substituted for subsection (2)--
[...]
(4) It shall be a defence for a person charged with an offence under subsection (2) or (3) to prove--
(a) that at the time of the alleged offence he believed--
(i) that he was acting with lawful authority; or
[...]
When this is combined with the
Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007 section 39. Confidentiality of personal information
(1) Subject to this section, personal information held by the Board in relation to the exercise of any of its functions must not be disclosed by--
(a) any member or employee of the Board,
(b) a member of any committee of the Board, or
(c) any other person who has received it directly or indirectly from the Board.
[...]
(4) Subsection (1) does not apply to a disclosure which--
(a) is required or permitted by any enactment,
(b) is required by a Community obligation,
(c) is necessary for the purpose of enabling or assisting the Board to exercise any of its functions,
(d) has already lawfully been made available to the public,
(e) is made in pursuance of an order of a court,
(f) is made for the purposes of a criminal investigation or criminal proceedings (whether or not in the United Kingdom),
(g) is made, in the interests of national security, to an Intelligence Service,
(h) is made with the consent of the person to whom it relates, or
(i) is made to an approved researcher.
There is now no legal defence for the Office for National Statistics to stand up to the police, intelligence agencies, tax authorities or even High Court Orders brought by rich clients and their expensive lawyers, or other data snoopers, who want to use the census data for their own data trawling purposes to hunt down a particular individual or their family.
Here are the details of the Intrusive, and No Longer Confidential Questions which are to be demanded from you, under the threat of a fine of up to Level 3 on the Standard Scale i.e. £1000:
Articles 6(1)-(4)SCHEDULE 2
Particulars to be stated in returns
Resident particulars
1. For each usual resident at the address, the first name, last name, connection to the household or accommodation and whether or not an individual return has been issued for that person.
2.The total number of usual residents at the address.
3. For each usual resident--
(a) except in a case to which (b) applies, the relationship to the first person named in the return and the relationship to each of the previous persons named in the return;
(b) in the case of any person named seventh or at any higher number in a return, the relationship to the first person named in the return and to any other person named at a previous number higher than six in the return.
At the very least fill out a separate form for each person, so that you do not have to betray your familial relationship to the Census database snoopers.
Visitor particulars
4. For each reckonable visitor at the address, the first name, last name, sex, date of birth, connection to the household or accommodation and usual address or country of usual residence if outside the UK.
5. The total number of reckonable visitors at the address.
Demographic particulars
6. Sex and date of birth.
7. Current legal status as to marriage or civil partnership.
8. Whether a student (including a schoolchild) in full-time education and if so, whether living at the address to which the return relates during term-time or at another address.
9. Country of birth.
10. If not born in the UK, the month and year of most recent arrival to live in the UK, and if that event was on or after 27th March 2010, the length of intended stay in the UK.
All 450 million European Union nationals(including UK citizens) have the right of freedom of travel throughout the European Union, without having to Register with the local government, unless they stay for more than 3 months. The responses to this Question will be statistically meaningless.
11. Country of passport held.
12. Whether or not the person stays at another address for more than 30 days a year, and if so, either the address (if within the UK), or the country (if outside the UK), and in either case the type of address.
13. Whether or not the person suffers from any health problem or disability which has lasted or is expected to last at least 12 months and which limits that person's day-to-day activities.
14. Whether the person's health is in general very good, good, fair, bad or very bad.
15. Whether or not the person looks after or gives help or support to family members, friends, neighbours or others because of long-standing physical or mental ill-health or disability or because of problems related to old age and, if so, the number of hours a week spent on this, excluding anything done as part of any paid employment.
Medical Data like this is Sensitive Personal Data - do not answer this / do not answer this truthfully !
16. Whether the person describes themselves as: English, Welsh, Scottish, Northern Irish, British, or any other national identity (stating which) and which one of the following--
(a)White and whether English/Welsh/Scottish/Northern Irish/British, Irish, Gypsy or Irish Traveller, or any other White background (stating which);
(b) Mixed/multiple ethnic group and whether White and Black Caribbean, White and Black African, White and Asian, or any other Mixed/multiple ethnic background (stating which);
(c) Asian/Asian British and whether Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Chinese or any other Asian background (stating which);
(d) Black/African/Caribbean/Black British and whether African, Caribbean, or any other Black/African/Caribbean background (stating which); or
(e)Arab or other ethnic group (stating which).
This is perfect data for anyone planning "ethnic cleansing" or genocide.
This will not be of any use in combatting illegal immigration !
The understandable fear is that this data will be used for Rich Picture and Tension Monitoring snooping and spying on ethnic and religious communities by the Police and UK and Foreign Intelligence Agencies.
17. Whether the person describes themselves as: of no religion, Christian, Buddhist, Hindu, Jewish, Muslim, Sikh, or of any other religion (stating which).
What happened to "Jedi Knight" ?
Religious Belief is Sensitive Personal Data - do not answer this / do not answer this truthfully !
18. Whether main language is English (or for returns in Wales, Welsh or English) or another language (stating which).
19. If main language is one other than English (or for returns in Wales, Welsh or English), whether the person can speak English very well, well, not well or not at all.
This will not be of any use in combatting illegal immigration !
It will not be of any use in providing English As Foreign Language training either.
20. Whether on 27th March 2010--
Make your minds up - do you mean 2010 or 2011 ?
(a) the person was a usual resident--
(i) at the address to which the return relates;
(ii) at a student term-time address (and if so, that address); or
(iii)at another address in the UK (and if so, that address); or
(b)the person's usual address was outside the UK (and if so, in which country).
Is this a crude attempt to try to hunt down non-domiciled tax avoiders ?
Education and Employment particulars for each person to whom article 6(2)(d)(ii) or 6(3)(b) applies
21. The levels of educational qualifications obtained (if any) and whether any of the following have been obtained --
(a)professional qualifications;
(b)vocational or work-related qualifications;
(c)foreign qualifications.
Why is this information required, and by whom ?
22. Whether that person during the week preceding census day was--
(a) working as an employee;
(b) on a Government sponsored training scheme;
(c)self-employed or working freelance;
(d) working paid or unpaid for own or a family business;
(e) doing any other kind of paid work;
(f) away from work ill, on maternity leave, on holiday or temporarily laid off; or
(g) none of the above.
23. If not working during the week preceding census day, whether or not that person was--
(a) actively looking for any kind of paid work during the last four weeks;
(b) available to start work within two weeks;
(c)waiting to start work, having obtained a job;
and whether that person was--
(d) retired;
(e) a student;
(f) looking after the home or family;
(g) long term sick or disabled; or
(h) not working for any other reason.
24. If not working during the week preceding census day, whether that person has ever worked and if so, the last year of work.
25. For the main job done during the week preceding census day, or if not working then, for the last main job--
(a) whether working as an employee, or self-employed with employees or self-employed/freelance without employees;
(b)the full title of the main job;
(c) what was done in the main job;
(d) whether or not supervising any other employees;
(e) the main business activity of the employer at the place of work; and
(f) either the name of the organisation worked for (including own organisation if self-employed) or whether there was no such organisation.
26. In respect of any person who was working during the week preceding census day--
(a) the workplace address for the main job, or whether mainly working at or from home or at an offshore installation or whether there is no fixed place of work;
(b) the mode of transport used for the longest part, by distance, of the usual journey to work; and
(c) the number of hours a week usually worked in the main job.
This is only a couple of questions short of "signing on" for state benefits etc. !
These Questions also fall foul of spirit of the Terrorism Act 2000 section 58A Eliciting, publishing or communicating information about members of armed forces etc - what if you are employed at a Military Base or Police station or Intelligence Agency HQ ?
Do not answer this / do not answer this truthfully !
Accommodation particulars
27. Whether the living accommodation occupied by the household to which the return relates is--
(a) a whole house or bungalow (and whether detached, semi-detached or terraced (including end-terrace); or
(b) a flat, maisonette or apartment (and whether in a purpose-built block of flats or tenement, part of a converted or shared house (including bed-sits) or in a commercial building); or
(c) a caravan or any other mobile or temporary structure.
28. Whether or not the accommodation is self-contained.
29. Excluding any bathrooms, toilets, halls or landings, or rooms that can only be used for storage, the number of rooms for use only by the household (and the number of these rooms that are designed for use as a bedroom).
30. Whether or not the accommodation has central heating, and if so whether the type of heating is gas, electric, oil, solid fuel or other type.
31. The number of cars and vans owned, or available for use, by one or more members of the household to which the return relates.
32. Whether the household to which the return relates--
(a) owns the accommodation outright;
(b) owns the accommodation with a mortgage or loan;
(c) part owns and part pays rent;
(d)rents the accommodation; or
(e) lives in the accommodation rent free.
33. Where the household to which the return relates rents or part rents the accommodation or lives in the accommodation rent free, the type of landlord.
The only possible reason for these questions must be fo try to crudely detect "benefits cheats" or for a Local Authority to tax you more .
Do not answer this / do not answer this truthfully.
Additional particulars for Wales
34. In respect of any person, whether able to--
(a)understand spoken Welsh;
(b) speak Welsh;
(c) read Welsh;
(d)write Welsh; or
(e)do none of the above.
Why is this not next to the English Language Question ? Why are the categories of language skill not exactly the same for English and Welsh
Additional particulars for individual returns
35. Whether the accommodation is a private or family home, or a communal establishment.
36. If the accommodation is a communal establishment whether or not the respondent is answering the questions on behalf of someone else and whether the person with whom the return is concerned is--
(a) a resident in the establishment; or
(b) a member of staff or the owner of the establishment; or
(c) a family member or partner of a member of staff or of the owner of the establishment.
I wish I could remember what I put last time. If they are using this data for dubious purposes then presumably they are also checking against the previous census.
OTOH, they're not necessarily using this information for anything. It seems to me just as likely that we've got into a situation where we're being asked intrusive questions for no rational reason at all.
Which would still be wrong, of course.
I think the census has a use. It is going to be scanned and at a future date it will be released.
That makes it a great means of being used as a time capsule. Use it to leave a message to future generations. For example, you can now see the 1911 census (paid for). The 1901 likewise. However these were filled out by census enumerators.
With this census you can fill the form out and avoid the dodgy questions above. You could also write on the form all sorts of comments. It will be scanned and future generations will be able to read it.
Nick
@ Nick - you risk a fine of up to Level 3 i.e. £1000 if you "falsify" any part of the Census form, or foal to complete one.
I'm sure it's an innocent error, but on the Census site if you go to "What is a census?" and click "How the information is kept confidential" you currently get a 404 (page not found) error.
Ed
@ Edgard - that is not very reassuring !
http://www.ons.gov.uk/census/what-is-a-census/How-the-information-is-kept-confidential/index.html
It is a hugely difficult, and probably impossible problem for something on this national scale
What happened to the previous incumbent for this advertised job vacancy - did they leave in frustration ?
Census Security Manager (Census Field Operations and associated services & Compliance) (Grade 7)
http://www.ons.gov.uk/jobs/current-vacancies/census-security-manager--census-field-operations-and-associated-services---compliance-/index.html
The old 2001 Census form is here:
http://www.statistics.gov.uk/census2001/pdfs/H1.pdf
The 2001 Census form is here
http://www.statistics.gov.uk/census2001/pdfs/H1.pdf
It did not ask any questions about your level of proficiency in English (or Welsh)
It did not include questions about your Passport
Instead of just "Country of birth" on the 2001 form, the 2011 Question asks for much more detail:
It did not ask about second homes or foreign residency or student addresses in addition to the main address.
The collection of these multiple addresses is reminiscent of the National Identity Register.
It did not ask you to identify yourself as a "Gypsy or Irish Traveller"
The Ethnic / Racial profiling is now more detailed, now trying to separate African Blacks from Caribbean Blacks etc.
I am beginning to think I should take the £1000 hit, and the criminal record, instead of the NIR entry that I believe you rightly suggest will follow.
It was the first census that IBM helped the Germans with which did most damage to the targeted populations later.
I worked on the last census while I was a poverty-stricken student.
We were told that as long as people filled in their name, DOB, sex and marital status, they weren't concerned about the rest of the form and even allowed the rest of the form to be left blank.
Article updated with a section on the removal of the old legal protection of the Census Act 1920 to allow the sharing of census data with the police, the courts , the intelligence services, the tax authorities, "approved reseachers" etc.
Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling in final split.
Breaking news - read it now.
I'm not sure the Census Confidentiality Act made any practical difference.
See, for example, this extract from page 48 of 'The Defence of the Realm: The Authorized History of MI5' by Christopher Andrew, Alan Lane, 2009:
=====
By December 1913 the Counter-Espionage Bureau's secret Register of Aliens was almost complete except for London (where about half the aliens lived), and Kell wrote to the Home Office 'to express our gratitude to the Chief Constables and their Superintendents for the excellent work they have done for us during the last three years' and to request that their local registers 'be kept under constant current revision'. Kell's original plan to use police forces around the country to compile a secret register of all aliens from probable enemy powers (chiefly Germany) had proved difficult to complete because of the scale of the exercise and the limited resources of both Bureau and police. The Home Office had also insisted that no alien was to be asked any question 'of an inquisitorial nature'. The results of the National Census of 1911, however, made it possible to complete a more limited and focused Register of Aliens. During 1913 the Census returns were used to record the particulars of all male aliens aged eighteen and above of eight nationalities (in particular Germans and Austrians) living in areas which would be closed to aliens in wartime. Information on aliens taken from the Census was then circulated for checking to chief constables, who were also asked to take note of those on the Register in their areas.
Kell's Registry entered the aliens information received from the 1911 Census and chief constables on what were known as 'Special Cards': the beginning of Ml5's card index. The Registry was among the most up to date of its era.
The control freaks are still not satisfied, they want to snoop on us in even more detail, without any extra safeguards or criminal sanctions against abuse of this sensitive personal data whatsoever.
Remember that there is now no longer any legal protection against this data being handed over to UK or foreign law enforcement or intelligence agencies or tax authorities etc.
They also get a handwriting sample. Do they get a signature, thumbprint? Or if done by computer, other issues abound. Will some people need to use ink that cant be lndered? Could the results be rigged per computer or postal or other ballot-rigging methods? Will anything be analysed by those who don't know the truth that eben the current questions obviously not only can be used to violate people, butthat differnt people for different reasons will answer the same question for different, and that many of the questions are bad from a systems and cultural point of view.
The questions also may be abused to look for nationalists etc.
The sample polulations were most interesting to the defence industry.
It is not just the UK whose census will be handled by defence companies.
The EU nations (2011)and India (see also UN) are having censii.
Some questions ask for number of bedrooms used for bedrooms and/or storage. I read a newsreport where a hospital patient was asked ho many rooms she had. I am concerned about people being picked on or stealth taxed by inter alia by forcing fee-demanding social or other service on them, or people being told they are under or overcrowded in their private propoerty, or being accused of harboring criminals or aliens, also the use and abuse of data to increase taxes - council or others. Fortunately some British couples have a trdition of sometimes sleeping in different bedrooms for p&q, some don't, some are generous and hospitable to friends and family and needs and choices rationally flux and change from time to time, making a mockery of many of the questions.
As anyone who has worked on systems know, everything can be hacked, data is misenterd, systems imperfect, combining data from different systems inaccurate, bugs always exist.
Most people realise that people will look up info about themselves, their riends, their enemies, their competition, those they have disputes with.
As caring, honest and upright citizens we all need to answer the census bearing in mind that criminals as well as competitors of British business or people with their differeing agendas and needs and assumptions about what the questions and data fields really mean will all come to slightly differing decesions about what an individual census question answer or an individual's answers to all the questions mean about the person, and will all come to their own unique view of the person, with sometimes good, and sometimes terrible and unjust or stupid resulting actions by them.
While are average people, we are all also unique, and individuality and that traditional british "eccentricity" motives can be misjudged.
I also saw articles on the web stating or implying that some obvious missing questions would be derived from other sources and attached to questionnaires and that other authorities and entities would use the info. ditto those with climate change and social policy et alone other stuff.
How as good citizens do we fill in this form and protect anyone we know who is vulnerable or who works or knows anything about anything that hackers or foreign spies or any individuals with bad motives or who get used by the nefarious. The whole of British business, reaseach, government as well as the lives of citizens are at risk.
When they try and join mismatching, incompete medical, social, government etc data - they will get a morass of mistakes, contradictions and resulting garbage.
I suggest we all are very careful including between now and the censii.
I think will fail to help those who want data for good purposes and be exploited by those who wish to abuse people, communities and the country.
I've read this with disquiet. As far as I recall, the 2001 census only required the disclosure of people who'd stayed the previous night at the address - if my household stayed the night in a b&b, could I legitimately provide no information/omit everyone's name on the form?
What happens if you are conveniently abroard on the census date?
In 2001, when the census lady visited, I simply refused to comply. She informed me that I was liable to a £1000 fine. I told her I would happily face the extremely remote prospect of her threat being implemented, rather than tell the state anything about my private life. She left, and I heard nothing more.
I imagine that events will take a similar course this time as well.
Like your site, I have been reading quite a lot about this recently and it is beneficial to get every unique bits of info and points of view. Look forward to reading more.