MPs warn that defence giant could give census secrets to US spy chiefs

Personal details from the next census could be disclosed to US authorities if an American defence company wins the contract to run it, the Treasury Select Committee says today. MPs on the committee are demanding that the Government seeks firm assurances that detailed information about the UK population will not be at risk of being handed to US intelligence agencies.

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Two companies, Lockheed Martin, the US defence group, and the German telecommunications company TSystems, are bidding for the £450 million contract to run the 2011 Census.

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Angela Eagle, a Treasury minister, said that if Lockheed won the contract, provisions preventing the removal from the UK of census information would be put in the contract, but MPs on the Commons committee were not convinced.

“We remain concerned that the personal information gathered throught the 2011 Census could be subject to the United States Patriot Act and therefore we ask the Government to take clear legal advice and advice from the US State department and to publish it,” the Treasury Select Committee report says today.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article3987594.ece

I'm still wondering about the last census in 2001 with the mysterious and sudden interest in people's religion.