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Census Bill (1)

01 January 1991

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Census Bill
artdoc May=1991
Statewatch no.1 March/April 1991

The Census (Confidentiality) Bill is being rushed through parliament on a
special fast track procedure in time for this year's planned census. This is
despite the fact that an independent report on the confidentiality issues of the
census by the British Computer Society has only just been published together
with a government White Paper, 1991 Census of Population: Confidentiality and
Computing. The report from the British Computer Society says that for the second
time in 10 years approval was being sought for a census before all the
procedures were ready and without having an independent review body to check
that it is being correctly implemented.
Harry Cohen MP is proposing three major additions to the Bill: a watertight
guarantee that all the information on individuals will be protected for 100
years; a ban on the combining of Census statistics with information from other
sources which could lead to the identification of individuals; and the
application of the subject access provisions of the Data Protection Act to
Census information.
Computer Weekly, 31.1.91. Guardian, 19.2.91.

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