What to do with your census…
Here’s a cut n paste of an email I got from ethicalcensus.org.uk. I normally don’t have a problem with a census, I have filled out the last one, and as a recent student of history I can see where they are very useful. My problem is with who is collecting our data this time round. The rest of this blog is a copy of an email, not my own work:
Your census form – what to do with it
Many people in Scotland will by now have received census forms. We’ve had a lot of requests for advice from people who don’t want to fill them in. People are outraged by this census, which has been contracted to a UK arm of US defence firm CACI.
We encourage non-cooperation with the census. Most forms of non-cooperation are completely legal. You can withhold as much or as little cooperation as you wish. Illegal forms of non-cooperation – civil disobedience, in other words – are in our view a morally and politically reasonable response to this disgraceful census. But if you engage in civil disobedience (for example by refusing to fill in your census form), you do so on your own responsibility and at your own risk. You could be fined and acquire a criminal record (though we think prosecutions will be very rare). We will, of course, provide whatever support we can, whatever form of non-cooperation you choose.
*** DON’T RUSH to complete and return your census form. There is no statutory limit to the amount of time you can take to fill it in.
*** DON’T FILL IT IN ONLINE.
*** REMOVE ALL IDENTIFYING INFORMATION from your census form if you intend to return it uncompleted, perhaps with a message saying why you are doing so. You should remove (cut out, don’t just black out) the codes, address and Internet Questionnaire Access Code from the front page (or just remove the front page) and remove the bar codes and alpha-numeric codes from the bottom of every page. Returning a blank census form is not in itself illegal. But if you don’t eventually provide answers to the census questions you may be committing an act of civil disobedience and, in the unlikely event of being detected, prosecuted and convicted, you could be fined and acquire a criminal record.
Prosecution for non-compliance with the census is complex and difficult. Prosecutions for people suspected of non-compliance will not arrive out of the blue, but will follow a lengthy series of warnings. Census prosecutions normally rely on an admission provided by the refusenik when interviewed under caution by census staff. Just 3 people were convicted in Scotland after the 2001 census. One of them was fined £200; the other two were fined £50 each.
The collection of census forms will continue for many weeks after Census Day (Sunday 27 March).
For more information on what census staff will do if they think you haven’t returned your census form, and how you should respond to them, see www.ethicalcensus.org.uk/non-cooperation.php
Data from census forms returned after 15 August 2011 won’t be included in the census statistics (although they will be archived along with earlier returns, which you may think undesirable). So if you return your form after 15 August you will have scuppered the main purpose of the census, but you will nevertheless have complied with the law.
Census contractor CACI was involved in human rights violations in Iraq and shouldn’t be trusted with our data.
Moe information www.ethicalcensus.org.uk
Download, print and distribute our flyer http://bit.ly/cenflyer
We do not offer legal advice and nothing in this message should be construed as legal advice. If you need legal advice, consult a lawyer.