Census (Hansard, 20 July 2001)

§ Mr. Boateng

The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician. I have asked him to reply.

Letter from Len Cook to Mr. Norman Baker, dated 20 July 2001: As National Statistician and Registrar General for England and Wales, I have been asked to reply to your recent question on the discovery of census forms in bags outside St. Hilda's East Community Centre, London (5559). The Census forms were allegedly found in waste bags adjacent to St. Hilda's Community Centre, Old Nichol Street, London E2 by a local resident. 573W A room within this Community Centre was used as a secure local field office for three Census District Managers and their teams to help with the enumeration of four Census Districts in the area. Setting up local offices in this way was part of the Census 2001 strategy for city areas particularly. The work carried out at the Centre involved the handling of completed census forms returned by the Royal Mail or otherwise collected by field staff. It was an established collection point for the transfer of census forms to the national processing centre at Widnes. Waste census material was placed in bags in an alleyway adjoining the Centre ready for collection by an authorised contractor as arranged by the local census field staff. All staff working in the office were aware of the importance of the confidentiality of the materials and of the explicit instructions given by Census HQ for the transfer of spoilt or unused forms to HQ under separate cover. During the closedown stages of the Census in late June, a household telephoned the Regional Management Team at Census HQ to say he had been complaining to the local staff about waste material being placed in the alleyway outside the flats because he viewed this is a fire hazard. Census field staff had tried to resolve this issue locally. The householder was clearly not satisfied by this and subsequently retrieved and opened a bag containing completed census material and retained it. Despite efforts by the local Census field staff, the householder refused to hand back the material. It was finally retrieved without incident by one of the Census District Managers with the assistance of a senior officer from the Metropolitan Police in attendance. A local inspection by the Census District Manager revealed that the material included census forms, some of which were completed. The material was subsequently securely transferred to ONS Titchfield whereupon a detailed examination is being carried out. There are 190 forms, some of which contain personal information. Many are torn in half or have various notations on them. A full analysis is being carried out, including inspection of other boxes of completed forms at the processing centre, to determine exactly the status of those that have been retrieved. From what I have learned so far, it is possible that these forms which appear to have been put aside for return to HQ as spoilt forms, had been accidentally put out as waste for special collection. The confidentiality of information provided on census forms is of paramount importance to me and to all of my staff who have been working on the Census. The ONS has an extremely high and well-deserved reputation for protecting confidential information and I regret any breach that has occurred here. The circumstances of the case are unusual and the evidence I have suggests that this is an isolated incident. Census information is strongly protected by law and I will commission a thorough investigation to establish the facts and make recommendations to me about any further action that might need to be taken. When I have my report I will make it available to the Data Protection Commissioner to the Minister for National Statistics. I am deeply concerned about any possible breach of census confidentiality, and I am treating this particular incident very seriously. I will write to any individuals whose information may have been revealed to explain the situation and the actions that have been taken.