Office for National Statistics: Census 2011 "Approved Researchers"

We wonder who has access to our 2011 Census data, now over 6 months after it was initially collected so expensively ?

FOI team
CB23
Office for National Statistics
Segensworth Road
Titchfield
PO15 5RR

via email to: foi.team@ons.gov.uk
cc: 2011censuspress@ons.gov.uk

22nd September 2011

Dear Sirs,

Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, please disclose the
following information:


----------------------


With reference to the

Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007 section 39.
Confidentiality of personal information

http://www.opsi.gov.uk/ACTS/acts2007/ukpga_20070018_en_3#pt1-pb11-
l1g39

Please disclose:


1) The Names of individuals and / or the Companies or Organisations
who are currently registered as "Approved Researchers" for the
previous Census data i.e. 2001 and before.

2) The Names of individuals and / or the Companies or Organisations
who are registered as "Approved Researchers" for the current and
future 2011 Census data.

3) The Names of individuals and / or the Companies or Organisations
who have applied to be, but are not yet currently registered as,
"Approved Researchers" for the previous Census data i.e. 2001 and
before.

4) The Names of individuals and / or the Companies or Organisations
who have applied to be, but are not yet currently registered as,
"Approved Researchers" for the current and future 2011 Census data.

--------------------

Please provide the requested information, ideally by publishing it
on your public world wide website, or alternatively by email.

Ideally this should *not* be in the form of a "copy and paste"
locked Adobe .pdf file, or similar, attachment.

In the unlikely event that this information is not already
available in a standard electronic format, then please explain the
reasons why, when you provide the information in another format.

If you are proposing to make a charge for providing the information
requested, please provide full details in advance, together with an
explanation of any proposed charge.

If you decide to withhold any of the information requested, you
should clearly explain why you have done so in your response, by
reference to the Freedom of Information Act 2000 legislation.

If your decision to withhold is based upon an evaluation of the
Public Interest, then you should clearly explain which public
interests you have considered and why you have decided that the
public interest in maintaining the exception(s) outweighs the
public interest in releasing the information.

I look forward to receiving the information requested as soon as
possible and in any event, within the statutory 20 working days
from receipt of this email i.e. no later than Friday 21st October 2011

Yours Sincerely,

[name]
[address]
[email]

c.f. the answers to these questions just before the 2011 Census:

Office for National Statistics - Census Data Personal Information disclosures made under the SRSA 2007 s.39 exemptions

In response to your first question. There are eight people who are currently registered as Approved Researchers with access to information from previous censuses. Seven out of the eight are academics from the Universities of Bristol, Warwick and Leeds and Imperial College London. The eighth Approved Researcher is from "Kilo Oscar Ltd", a transport planning consultancy supporting Highway Authorities.

Approved Researchers only have access to a very small sample of anonymised census information. This sample contains no names; no addresses; and no date of birth. The only geographic information provided is the local authority in which the individual lives.

In response to your questions 2 - 4. There are no Approved Researcher's who are currently pre-approved for access to 2011 Census data. There are no outstanding applications to become Approved Researchers for either historic Census information or 2011 Census information.


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