Forums Forums Wirral Information Law And Your Rights has anyone not filled there census out?

It is so much quicker to fill it in online.

The law says we have to fill it out, doesn't say anything about honest answers so the best thing to do is fill it out online and just say your property is a holiday home. 30 seconds and it misses out all the questions.

Me.

What cha gunna do mat when they com knockin? Im considdering Firing up a fat one, and being all philosophical on who's ever arse it is on my door step.

Summer - they will threaten you until you fold. You gotta join the rest of the "fight the power campain". They are predicting 6-7million not to return as a result in loss of faith in the system holding personel data, and an infrignment about a compulsary form...

As long as you are going to pay the whole fine, not half of it!!!!!!!

Haha nothing to do with me!

Huh?

I doubt the government are really stupid enough to fine millions of people, alongside giving them criminal records, over a piece of paper - they (both the Conservatives and the Lib-Dems) do have aspirations of staying in power come the next General Election.

Anyone who gives their personal data to a private, American company, is pretty stupid. If I do fill it in, the data will consist of Mickey Mouse lol.

I am PRETTY STUPID then

I think everyone is making a big deal about nothing. If you've read the questions, you will see that there is nothing there which is not already in the public domain. If the Government lost (or sold) the information, why would I care? I'm on the electoral roll anyway which lists my name and address.

With an interest in genealogy, I also think it is useful to provide information which will be searchable for hundreds of years after I have gone; useful for anyone wishing to trace their family history.

Nothing to hide = nothing to moan about!

The US Government will have already collected more information about you than the British Government has, its unlikely the Census could add anything.

When I applied for a Visa, the Americans asked for proof of some information that (as it turned out), no longer existed in this country.

Fully agree.

For those who are still 'paranoid' about Government conspiracy I will make available tin foil hats!!

It's not about government conspiracy, its about living in a world where government funded organisations don't give a shit about the security of peoples private data, and giving it to a private US company, you just know they are going to sell it on.

If they just need it for statistics, why don't request the data anonymously, why do they need peoples names, addresses and date of birth, all data which can be used to steal someone's identity.

I'm careful about my data, the government warn us constantly about the threat of ID theft, and then they ask us to give it to a private US company, to use as they please.

There are plenty of other issues I have with the Census as well, including the cost of such a pointless programme, when they are quite likely to be cutting front-line services to reduce government/public spending, the hundreds of millions would be better spend on protecting the police force and NHS imho. I also question why we are employing a US company to carry out the work, how about backing a UK company and generating millions of pounds profit for them? In addition to this, the data is already there on existing government databases (electoral role, council tax, PNC, DWP, DVLA etc), so there is no actual reason for the data to be collected anyway, other than for sentimental reasons (oh, the year ends in 1, lets have a jolly good census). The general consensus seems to be that the 2011 census will be the final census anyway, so why waste the money at a time when we least have the money to waste?

Just remember, when they are pulling frontline services, £500m was wasted on a pointless survey, that has practically zero benefit to the nation and/or economy, that will be out of date before the statistics are eventually evaluated and published in 3 years time, and that basically collected data already available to the government if only they had the brains to gather it from pre-existing databases.

As for the genealogy argument, bollocks to it, my cousin has got out family tree back to the 1500's iirc, and afaik the first census was in 1801 (and didn't contain most of the shite found in the present census) - so that's proof for me that you don't need a census to trace a family tree. Also, when they are pulling front-line services, all you genealogy freaks, can sit there with a big smile on your face, safe in the knowledge that throughout all the cuts, your precious Census data was protected and you great great great grandchildren will be able to find out all about you in 100 years time.

They are quite persistent in calling round if you haven't filled it in. I'd never bother telling them I'm not planning on doing it, pretending that I'm just doing contracting building work or babysitting when they call round seems to do the trick. Alternative excuses are "i've just posted it off" - well the royal mail could have lost it (as it doesn't request return via registered post). After all the letter is addressed to "the occupier" - I'm not sure who "the occupier" is and I don't open post that isn't addressed to me.