Conscientous objectors and your census

Dear Mr Hansen

Thank you for your request dated 11 February 2011 under the Freedom of
Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA) for information on "Conscientious
objectors and your census".

Please see answers below to each of your questions.

You have given a contract for the census to a wholly owned
subsidiary of the US defence/intelligence contractor CACI
International. That organisation was operating at Abu Ghraib while
torture was taking place there. At various times CACI have asserted
they were not involved in torture or are exempt from legal action
over torture. These are facts about which there is no dispute.

The UK subsidiary claims it is a separate organisation, but that is
nonsense as it is a wholly owned subsidiary.

[1]http://www.sacc.org.uk/index.php?option=...
has some details.

Despite the unsuitably of this company being pointed out GROS/the
Scottish Government has pig-headedly stuck by its decision instead
of doing the right though more expensive, thing of ditching them.
Every decade there is spin that this will be the last census, as it
is too expensive, so your desperate desire to reduce the cost is
noted.

Your census also asks intrusive and irrelevant questions which are
none of your business, for example 13 and 15

[2]http://www.scotlandscensus.gov.uk/en/how...
The fact that some mushroom managed politicians in Holyrood may
have approved these questions does not make the question any of
your business.

The (voluntary) question on religion is compatible with the European
Convention on Human Rights. More specifically, it complies with Article 8
on the right to respect private and family life, and Article 9 concerning
freedom of thought, conscience and religion.

Users of census data regard these questions as an important source of
information. As an example, Highland Council has made use of census
statistics to assist the establishment of a multi-cultural community
centre in Inverness. An initial application by Scottish Highlands and
Islands Enterprise and Moray Chinese Association to the Big Lottery Fund,
seeking to fund research into the demand for and feasibility of a
multi-cultural centre, was not successful. However with help from
Highland Council, when it was resubmitted in May 2009 backed by
demographic information from the census on ethnicity in Highland and in
Scotland, the application was approved, and work continues towards the
creation of the centre.

Census statistics have also been provided to other local voluntary
organisations in Highland Council area to support the submission of
funding bids. Highland Council also uses census information on ethnicity,
nationality, religion and disabilities as data to inform its equality
scheme.

That background is necessary for my enquiry. Because of these two
issues refusing to co-operate with your census is an entirely valid
moral position. People who might have filled in a census a decade
ago face, through no fault of their own but through your deliberate
actions, ever more intrusive government questioning and providing
the answers to a subsidiary of a US defence/intelligence
contractor. Conscientious objectors should be valued, not threatened
as you do
[3]http://www.scotlandscensus.gov.uk/en/fil...

Please provide me with a copy of your guidelines on how you will
deal with conscientious objectors who cannot, in all conscience,
co-operate with your census.

"Conscientious objector" is not a term which appears in census
legislation, which requires all householders and managers of "communal
establishments to complete the census questionnaire, and we have no
guidelines on the matter. Our primary aim is to support, help and
encourage people to fill in the questionnaire, explaining how important it
is to do so. Our field staff are trained in accordance with that
approach.

I hope you will find this information useful. If you are unhappy with this
response to your request, you may ask us to carry out an internal review
by writing to:

Ms Audrey Robertson
Head of Corporate Services
General Register Office for Scotland
Ladywell House
Ladywell Road
Edinburgh
EH12 7TF

Your request should explain why you wish a review to be carried out and
should be made within 40 working days of receipt of this email. We will
reply within 20 working days of receipt. If you are not satisfied with the
result of the review, you then have the right to make a formal complaint
to the Scottish Information Commissioner.

Yours sincerely

S Hazlewood

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References

Visible links
1. http://www.sacc.org.uk/index.php?option=...
2. http://www.scotlandscensus.gov.uk/en/how...
3. http://www.scotlandscensus.gov.uk/en/fil...