HL Deb 15 November 1990 vol 523 cc542-5

9.39 p.m.

Baroness Hooper

My Lords, I beg to move that this Bill be now read a second time.

Perhaps I may start by reminding your Lordships that the next census of population will be held in just over five months' time, on 21st April 1991. In Great Britain it will be carried out by the Registrar General for England and Wales and the Registrar General for Scotland, assisted by their respective offices: the Office of Population Censuses and Surveys and the General Register Office (Scotland). When I moved for approval of the draft census order on 21st December last year, I referred to the determination of the census offices to maintain their excellent record in preserving the confidentiality of personal census information. This Bill bears witness to that determination.

In the light of the repeal of Section 2 of the Official Secrets Act 1911, the registrars general have reviewed the legislation safeguarding census information. The current Bill, if enacted, will replace the second half of Section 8 of the Census Act 1920—the part which provides penalties for the unlawful disclosure of information by census staff. Section 8(2) as it stands covers staff employed in taking a census. It does not cover other staff of the two offices who need to have access to census information for statistical purposes; nor does it protect information collected in census tests and census-related surveys. This Bill is intended to close these gaps where hitherto reliance has been placed on Section 2 of the Official Secrets Act 1911. As well as the census next spring, a number of voluntary surveys associated with it are planned or under consideration. Hence the early introduction of the Bill at the start of this Session.

Clause 1 would substitute six new subsections—namely, subsections (2) to (7)—for the existing subsection 8(2). The existing offence occurs where a person employed in taking a census discloses census information otherwise than in the ordinary course of his employment and has no lawful authority to do so. That is the primary offence. It also catches people who pass on information they have acquired as a result of unlawful disclosure; we may call this the processional offence. Offences under Section 8(2) carry a maximum penalty of two years' imprisonment and a fine.

The changes in Clause 1 only affect the primary offence. Most of the changes are contained in the proposed new subsection (2), which extends the compass of the primary offence to disclosure by either registrar general or any member of his staff, not just by a person employed in actually taking a census. That will provide protection for the use of census data in statistical and medical studies and in surveys carried out by staff of the census offices under the authority of Section 5 of the Census Act.

The proposed subsection (2) also brings in any supplier of services to either registrar general and the employees of those who supply such services. The information protected by subsection (2) is personal census information. I draw your Lordships' attention to the fact that definitions are given at subsection (7). Subsection (7)(i) refers to Sections 2 and 4 of the Census Act. The information acquired under Section 2 is so defined in the Bill as to include not only information collected on the census forms but also information acquired incidentally; for example, by a census field worker while visiting someone's home. This also brings in information collected in the voluntary census tests conducted in advance of the census as part of the duty of the registrars general to make such arrangements as may be necessary for taking a census.

Under Section 4 of the Census Act, information is collected in surveys to help the registrars general report on the census returns. We now propose to follow previous practice by holding a voluntary sample survey after the census to check the accuracy of the census information. We also plan to collect census information from households whose members may be away from home over the census period but who agree to fill in a form when they return home.

Therefore, the proposed subsection (7) also covers surveys to collect further information on samples of people or households identified from the census returns. That is the purpose of the definition in paragraph (ii) in subsection (7) referring to Section 5 of the Act. As I said last December, the data collected in these surveys will be handled entirely within the census offices and treated in strict confidence. The Bill will reinforce, with legal sanctions, the administrative protection given to all the further information collected in such census-related surveys.

The proposed subsection (2) refers not just to census information but to personal census information, defined as information relating to an identifiable person or household. Thus it focuses the protection more closely than is done by the Census Act 1920 as it now stands, where the existing Section 8(2) relates to any information obtained in the census. Here we are following the principle behind the recent reform of official secrets legislation by giving statutory protection where, but only where, it is really needed.

We are not trying to make criminals of public servants acting in good faith. The proposed subsection (4) provides defences for people who reasonably and genuinely believe either that they had proper legal authority for disclosing information that they have released or that no one could be identified from the information. However, the registrars general will be issuing instructions to all their staff to ensure that they are under no misapprehension about what they may disclose and to whom.

Subsections (3) and (5) preserve the processional offence, where someone passes on information which has been disclosed illegally.

Northern Ireland has its own registrar general who carries out censuses under the Census Act (Northern Ireland) 1969. Clause 2 of the Bill will enable provisions corresponding to those for Great Britain in Clause 1 to be applied to Northern Ireland by Order in Council.

Since 1921 there has only been one prosecution for unlawful disclosure of census information and we hope the provisions of this Bill will not have to be invoked, but it is important to put them in place before next year's census. We believe that the Bill will not only close a gap but reassure anyone concerned about the thoroughness of the protection given to personal census information. I beg to move.

Moved, That the Bill be now read a second time.—(Baroness Hooper.)

9.46

Lord Carter

My Lords, the House will be grateful to the Minister for explaining this highly technical Bill so well. I shall be brief. The Bill is non-contentious. It is largely technical. I should like to put just two points to the Minister. It has been pointed out to me that some information collected locally could enable individuals or groups to be identified unless there is a minimum level for any such group. Some combination of features, for example in a sparsely populated area, may just enable certain individuals to be identified. Is there any protection against that? If the Minister would like to write to me before the Committee stage, rather than respond now I should be happy. It is a point that has been put forward by one or two organisations, and one which they would like clarified.

My second point is important. I informed the Minister that I would raise it. Can information collected for the census be used in any way in connection with the poll tax to identify potential payers or non-payers or to assist in the compilation of the community charge register? Is the census information specifically excluded from the various sources of information that can be used to assist in the compilation of the community charge register?

9.47 p.m.

Baroness Hooper

My Lords, I am grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Carter, for his participation in this Second Reading debate. On the point that he raised about the community charge, I can give a firm assurance that there is no cause for concern on that score. With or without the Bill, there is no lawful authority for passing to community charge registration officers or anyone else outside census offices personal information given on the completed census returns. Therefore no one in those offices will be entitled to do so. Even under Section 8(2) of the Census Act, it would be an offence for those employed on the census, including the registrars general themselves, to pass the information to any person for purposes other than those of the Census Act.

The Bill will provide legal sanctions should anyone else ever be in a position to act unlawfully in that regard. Anyone will be able to see how many adults have been counted in an area for which census statistics are available and compare that number with a number from another source. But the census will not give community charge officials the names of individuals living at addresses, and in any case by the time census data are published that information may well be somewhat out of date and no longer directly relevant to the people then living in the area concerned.

I can assure your Lordships that the proposals announced last December to include a check on the electoral register as part of the voluntary sample survey which is conducted to validate the census, will provide no basis for focusing on individuals or households. I hope that I have been able to satisfy the noble Lord.

On Question, Bill read a second time, and committed to a Committee of the Whole House.