You asked
Please would you supply responses to the following questions, in relation to the collection of my UK Census personal data.
1. How is this personal data going to be used - specifically, explicitly and legitimately?
Where is the data collated - and then ultimately stored (for up to 10 years?) Please clarify.
Is this company in the UK - or in another country? Please supply the name, geographical location and website address of the company.
Having checked out LEIDOS, I see that the Company that ONS has contracted with, to deal with all the paper Census data - is a U.K. Subsidiary of the Main Company - (which has a Head Office in Virginia US.) I see also that the contract was made at a cost of up to £61.5m. Please advise about this - is it all public (tax-payers) money?
2. What Security arrangements are in place to protect my personal data against unauthorised or unlawful processing - or against accidental loss, destruction or damage.? (I require a specific response please.)
3. Do you hold an "Appropriate Policy Document" (describing the data processed, the reasons for the processing and the procedures followed, in order to ensure that all the six principles set out in the Data Protection Act 2018 are followed.)
If you do hold such a Document - please supply me with either a copy, or a link to access it.
We said
Thank you for your request.
Please see the following answers to your questions.
Q1)
The Census Act 1920 allows the Office for National Statistics (ONS) to run a census in England and Wales. The Census Order and Census Regulations provide details for Census 2021. ONS collect information from the questionnaire under our statutory objective to promote and safeguard the production of official statistics that serve the public good. This means that any personal data we collect will only ever be used to produce statistics or undertake statistical research. It will not be possible to identify individuals within these statistics or research. Further information on what ONS do with personal data is provided on the ONS website: https://census.gov.uk/your-data-and-security/what-we-do-with-your-information.
Census data is/was collected and held within the UK on secure systems and is used only by ONS staff.
The contract cost is all public money.
Q2)
ONS has published information on the arrangements in place to protect personal data. This can be accessed at https://census.gov.uk/your-data-and-security. To assure these processes, ONS commissioned an independent security assurance review ahead of the Census. Findings from the this review are also available on the ONS website: https://www.ons.gov.uk/census/censustransformationprogramme/keepingyourinformationsecure/census2021independentinformationassurancereview.
We are unable to provide you with specific information relating to our security tools, infrastructure and configurations. This knowledge could provide insights into our level of protection and therefore aid anyone wishing to launch an attack on our systems and cloud service provision. The information requested is exempted under S31(1)(a) - the prevention or detection of crime. To use this exemption we are required to consider the public interest test, and whilst we note there are public interest arguments in favour of transparency and disclosure we have decided that these are outweighed by other public interest factors that are in favour of non-disclosure. Principally we consider that release of the information requested would prejudice our ability to maintain and run a secure and safe technical security services. This is an essential function for all government departments and is particularly important for ONS which processes personal and economic information on its systems.
Q3)
ONS have published a Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA) which has been undertaken to help us identify and minimise the data protection risks for the 2021 Census and minimise the data protection risks for the 2021 Census. The published version has been shortened so as not to include any detail that may present any security or data protection risks. A linked to the published assessment is available here: https://www.ons.gov.uk/file?uri=/census/censustransformationprogramme/legislationandpolicy/2021censusdpiafinalapprovedversionforpublication.pdf