Number 10 and Treasury Committee clash over safety of census data

16th Jul 2008

The Green Party's Census Alert campaign aims to keep your information out of the hands of arms company Lockheed Martin.

A Downing Street petition response has denied Treasury Committee allegations that the US security services could be given access to British census data if the contract is handed to arms firm Lockheed Martin later this year.

Writing to the 5,590 people who signed a Green Party petition on the Number 10 website, the government claims that " personal census data will not be shared with any other state or nation," but a recent Treasury Select Commitee report on the census warns: "We remain concerned that the personal information gathered through the 2011 Census could be subject to the United States PATRIOT Act."

The Act requires US companies and their subsidiaries to relinquish any data which is requested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, while banning those companies from revealing that the information was requested or supplied.

Caroline Lucas MEP, the Green Party's principal speaker, said:

"Downing Street's response amounts to "trust us." They appear bewildered as to why anyone would worry about handing over personal details - including details of race and religion - to a multinational weapons manufacturer with close ties to the American security services.

"The government quotes extensively from UK privacy laws and EU procurement regulations. Faced with conflicting requirements from British laws and the US PATRIOT Act, which government would Lockheed Martin choose to ignore? Given that it would be a criminal offence for them to reveal that the US government had even asked for our personal details, how could we ever trust them?

"If British people are to have any faith in the security of their personal data, we should ensure it goes nowhere near Lockheed by removing them from the bidding process altogether."

For more on the Census Alert campaign, go to: www.censusalert.org.uk.

To see the petition and read the government response, go to the Downing Street petitions site.