§ LORD COLWYNMy Lords, I beg leave to ask the Question which stands in my flame on the Order Paper.
§ [The Question was as follows:
§ To ask Her Majesty's Government if they will consider releasing to the national Press and to the radio and television services before Sunday, information to reassure the public that the answers that they give to the questions asked in the Census form will be treated as strictly confidential.]
§ LORD NEWTONMy Lords, I am glad to take this opportunity to emphasise that the answers to the questions asked in the Census forms are treated as strictly confidential: they are used to produce statistical information only, and no information about any individual person or household is divulged or used for any other purpose. This was brought out in the debates that took place both in your Lordships' House and in another place on the Census Order, 1960.
Releases to the Press, radio and television have emphasised this point and it has been well featured at various times. There has been wide publicity in the Press, both national and local, and good coverage on television and sound radio. The point has also been stressed in an official booklet called Why a Census? which has been on sale to the public since the 15th March. Any suitable opportunity of further publicity will be taken and I am grateful for the noble Lord's help in drawing attention to this important point.
§ LORD COLWYNMy Lords, I am grateful to the noble Lord for his Answer, but can he give me just a few 683 instances of the sort of publicity given on this point in the last few days, since the Census people have been going round the various houses?
§ LORD NEWTONYes, my Lords. The confidential nature of the Census has been stressed in all the publicity given to the Census, which actually started immediately after the draft Order in Council was laid in April last year. More recently, on March 14, the Registrar General was interviewed on television, and the interview appeared in the news bulletins of both the B.B.C. and the I.T.N. On April 7, another official was interviewed on the 10 o'clock News and Comment programme in the B.B.C. Home Service; a Census officer has appeared on Independent Television, and an enumerator (that is, one of the people who go round with the forms) appeared in "What's my Line?", a programme which has a great popular following. I also understand that on Sunday afternoon, which of course is Census Day, Mr. Dudley Perkins, who speaks in the B.B.C. sound programme "Can I Help You?", will also deal with this point of the confidential nature of the Census.