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The results of two exercises to check the robustness of ONS’s plans for protecting the confidentiality of personal information gathered by the UK 2011 Census.
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Census data confidentiality is protected by the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007 (SRSA) and the Data Protection Act.
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Describes ONS’s data security measures applying to census staff and IT systems, and documents the government security standards and classifications that cover UK census data.
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Arrangements were made to ensure that UK 2011 Census data could not be accessed by US authorities.
The information you provided to us in the 2011 Census is confidential and protected by law.
The confidentiality of personal information is a top priority for the census. Your personal census information is not shared with any other government department, local councils or marketing companies.
Information collected in the 2011 Census will be used solely to produce statistics and for statistical research. These statistics will not reveal any personal information.
The paper questionnaires are scanned, then shredded, pulped and recycled. Census records are kept confidential for 100 years before being made available to the public. Census records remain closed while they are in the custody of the census offices. Records from the 2011 Census for England and Wales are not scheduled for public release before January 2112.