Our data – on demand

Published: 10 March, 2011

• THE Office for National Statistics, who are conducting the upcoming census, assure us our data are safe with them for 100 years.  

Doubtless the ONS wouldn’t volunteer our information or disclose it merely on request; but the Statistics and Registration Services Act 2007 contains general non-disclosure exemptions which appear to allow access to individuals’ raw non-anonymised data by many organisations such as the police, intelligence agencies, courts, and government bodies, on demand, as a legal right, and the ONS would be breaking the law if they did not comply (a problem that could be solved by the government simply issuing a regulation to protect the raw census data from the exemptions and ensure they’re destroyed as soon as the abstracted data are statistically tabulated). This would be in line with the Coalition parties’ promise on rolling back the database state.

The threat of a £1,000 fine and a criminal record is incurred if we don’t supply the information, but it’s well worth asking how do the ONS know information we supply is correct. 

KATHY NOTO, via email