§ Mr. TOUCHEasked the President of the Local Government Board if he is aware that exception has been taken to the action of the Registrar-General in 470W offering to place at the disposal of London borough councils the special information contained in the Census Returns of 1911 with respect to the population, the number of tenements of different sizes, and the number and ages of persons living in these tenements in the districts into which London boroughs were divided for the purpose of the Census, the objectors being under the impression that this constitutes an infringement of the promise of secrecy under which the Census Returns were obtained; and is he in a position to make any statement on the subject?
§ Mr. BURNSSection 9 of the Census (Great Britain) Act, 1910, states:—
The Registrar-General may, if and at such time as he thinks fit, at the request and cost of any local authority or any person, cause abstracts to be prepared containing statistical information which can be derived from the Census Returns, but is not supplied by the Census Report, and which, in his opinion, the authority or person may reasonably require.
Under the provisions of this Section many demands have been and are still being made by local authorities for special abstracts to be made from the Census Returns for the purposes of the administration of the Public Health Acts, etc. The pledge given at the head of the individual Census Schedules that the Returns were not to be used for any other purpose than the preparation of statistical tables has been strictly observed; no information has been or will be disclosed with regard to individual persons or families.