2011 Census Problems

[djcrtoye]

Hi, just found out that there are some problems with 2011 census. It boils down to that an American company Lockheed Martin is tendering for the I.T., but according to the Patriot Act in United States they must let the U.S. government know the deatils of their work. In theory they could give details of census results before our 100 years disclosure and its causing problems because they are only two so far in for the tender. The U.K. government is playing down the threat but MP's are not so sure on the back of all the lost data recently. Thought you would like to know the situation.

[Montrose Budie]

Hi, just found out that there are some problems with 2011 census. It boils down to that an American company Lockheed Martin is tendering for the I.T., but according to the Patriot Act in United States they must let the U.S. government know the deatils of their work. In theory they could give details of census results before our 100 years disclosure and its causing problems because they are only two so far in for the tender. The U.K. government is playing down the threat but MP's are not so sure on the back of all the lost data recently. Thought you would like to know the situation.

Whether or not there's only two companies tendering for the 2011 census IT contract, the inability of a tenderer to guarantee absolutely that they could and would comply with the associated UK legislation (separate Acts of Parliament in England & Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland) would automatically lead to that company's tender being disqualified as being fundamentally and completely unacceptably "non-compliant".

OK, so that leaves just one tenderer in there, but that's acceptable in such a situation, even although it could lead to a higher cost.

Given the timescale involved, a retendering process is maybe a possibility, but things are getting a bit tight !

MB

[emanday]

During my time as a database developer I was usually privy to the data being held.

In every case I was required to sign a confidentiality agreement which not only prevented me from discussing the data with any unauthorised person, but also required me to take every precaution to ensure that said data would be maintained in a secure manner!

Without signing that agreement I would have been disqualified from getting the contract!

If the tendering organisation in the 1911 census case find that they cannot comply with the terms and conditions, what do they expect?

[wini]

There you are Mary,

Get busy on your tender.
ONLY JOKING!!!!

WINI

[emanday]

There you are Mary,

Get busy on your tender.
ONLY JOKING!!!!

WINI

Thankfully, I'm out of all that and enjoying a surprisingly busy retirement

The thought of going back to the stress of it all