US COMPANY AWARDED 2011 CENSUS CONTRACT
Hot on the heels of the recent shambles ,caused by the SATS test marking, another American company has been awarded a £150 million contract to help with the 2011 census.
Despite fears over US intelligence gaining access to the census data, Lockheed Martin have been awarded Britain’s 2011 census contract.
The contract awarded by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), will mean that Lockheed Martin will provide services including a customer contact centre, questionnaire printing and data capture and processing. It is valued at around £150million, which is approximately one third budget for the census.
Controversy surrounds the decision as any US-based company is subject to the US Patriot Act, which allows the US government to gain access to any data that is held by the company.
Campaigners have warned this could give the US government access to data on the UK’s entire population.
Please note: no US companies will have any access to personal census data and
no Lockheed Martin staff will have access. All data is the property of ONS and only UK/EU
owned companies will be involved in handling pesonal data. All processing will be in the UK and no data will leave or be held at any time outside the UK.
Concerns expressed about the possibility of the US Patriot Act being used by US intelligence services to access personal census data have been addressed by ONS through the addition of a number of important contractual and operational safeguards. These arrangements have been put in place to ensure that US authorities are unable to access census data.
The safeguards include a contractual structure that ensures no US companies will have any access to any personal Census data.
No Lockheed Martin staff (from either the US parent or UK company) will have access to any personal Census data.
All data will be processed in the UK and remain in the UK
Further details are given below, and on the ONS website.
The prime contractor is Lockheed Martin UK Ltd. Additional specialist services will be provided by Cable & Wireless, Logica, UK Data Capture, bss, Steria, Polestar, Oracle and Royal Mail. Lockheed Martin UK will design the processing systems for ONS using its expertise and past experience. The day to day running of operational services will be provided by the consortium of specialist service providers. All of these specialist subcontractors are registered and owned in the UK or elsewhere in the EU.
This contractual structure means that no US companies will have any access to any personal Census data.
No Lockheed Martin staff (from either the US parent or UK company) will have access to any personal Census data.
All data will be processed in the UK and remain in the UK
Existing law already prevents the disclosure of Census data – it is a criminal offence to disclose personal Census data and is punishable by a fine and/or up to two years in prison.
All Census data is owned by ONS and all of the legal undertakings of confidentiality of personal Census information will apply to both ONS and any contractors.
All Census employees and contractors working on the Census sign a declaration of confidentiality to guarantee their understanding and compliance with the law.
All staff who have access to the full Census data set in the operational data centre will be ONS employees.
Staff with access to the full Census data set or substantial parts of it will have security clearance to handle material classified as ‘Secret’ under the UK Government’s classifications.