In the 1960s, officials prevented the release of the 1911 census by flouting the law. Forty years later, they seem to be attempting to do it again but the Information Commissioner has not intervened in a timely manner
By Denis McCready
On 5th December 2005, a special 1911 census petition, known as an Early Day Motion (EDM), was tabled in the House of Commons for MPs to sign. It asked the Information Commissioner to publish his advice on the government's, seemingly unlawful,100-year census closure policy.
The ICO has informed us that the Commissioner has a statutory duty under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to issue advice. However, by February 2006, when the EDM had the support of more than 70 MPs, the Commissioner had not published any advice on this subject.
EDM immediately rubbished as a !SUSPECTED SPAM!
To try to discover why the Commissioner has not responded to the EDM, we asked the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) to supply a copy of all relevant documents in its possession. As a result, we obtained copies of the following emails.
ICO Email 1 The ICO parliamentary monitoring team
alerts the Deputy Commissioner to EDM 1198, under the extraordinary
heading SUSPECTED SPAM
From Parliamentary Monitoring team Sent:
06 December 2005 10:45 To: Graham Smith (Deputy Director) Subject: !SUSPECTED SPAM!
epolitixPlus Monitoring:
Information Commissioner – all contacts
House of
Commons Early Day Motions Date tabled: 05 December 2005
Mr Mike Hancock
That this House notes that the Freedom of Information
Act 2000 repealed the 100-year closure period for decennial census records, but
that, nevertheless, the Department for Constitutional Affairs and the National
Archives assert that it is Government policy that the 1911 Census shall remain
closed to inspection for 100 years; and urges the Information Commissioner to
take an early opportunity to publish his advice on this matter. (1198)
ICO
Email 2 The Deputy Commissioner asks his senior colleagues to
brief him, fearing that Mike Hancock might be
trying to "rope in" the ICO.
From: Graham
Smith Sent: 06 December 02005
12:04 To: Dawn Monaghan Cc: Gerrard
Tracey; John-Pierre Lamb Subject: (as above)
Dawn, Is this an outstanding work item for your team or is this person
just trying to rope us in via this EDM?
J-P, I’ve
not checked CMEH, but do we have any complaints relating to this issue (or
indeed from this MP)?
Thanks,
Graham
ICO Email 3 One colleague reports that Mike Hancock MP has not
filed a complaint with the ICO but at least 4 complaints (about the conduct of
the National Archives) are being investigated
From: John-Pierre
Lamb Sent: 06 December 2005 12:31 To:
Graham Smith (Deputy Commissioner); Dawn Monaghan Cc: Gerrard Tracey Subject: (as above)
I have
checked CMEH and this is a live issue. One case 75721 (with two linked) is
currently with Dani Radford. There are at least three
others in the Exemption queue. These are 79480, 84435 and 88373. There are none
however from Mike Hancock MP himself
Our
comment
The cases listed by John-Pierre Lamb
are not complaints about
the government's new 100-year census closure policy. They are requests for FOI
Act section 50 Decisions by the Commissioner about the conduct of the National
Archives (NA). The NA has asserted,
seemingly without lawful justification, that FOI Act
Exemption 41 (on confidentiality) applies to all requests for copies of
extracts from the 1911 census.
ICO Email 4 Another colleague reports that the ICO FOI Team has not received
any requests for guidance on this issue, except from the Director of the
From: Dawn
Monaghan Sent: 06 December 2005
14:37 To: Graham Smith (Deputy Commissioner) Cc: Garrard
Tracey; John-Pierre Lamb; David Chapman; Charlotte Powell Subject: (as
above) Importance: High
We have
received a number of FOI requests from a Mr D McCready regarding the number of
complaints we have received regarding the 1911 census and the outcome of those cases.
These requests have been answered. To my knowledge the team has not received
any other letters or requests for guidance on this issue. Is it something that Ged was dealing with before Nov 14th?
Dawn
ICO Email 5 Another colleague
reports that a complaint had been filed about the conduct of the National
Archives, but he fails to say that the complaint is NOT
about 100-year census closure policy
From: David
Chapman Sent: 06 December 2005
15:00 To: Dawn Monaghan Cc: Graham Smith (Deputy
Commissioner); Gerrard Tracey; Charlotte Powell
Subject: (as above)
I know from
Mr McCready’s FOI requests to the office that he has at least one complaint
with us relating to TNA and the 1911 census (see FS50075721)
Our comment on the BIRD'S CUSTARD CASE The case mentioned by David Chapman (FS50075721 - which has been awaiting the Commissioner's Decision since May 2005) relates to an unsuccessful application to the National Archives to see the 1911 census records for an extremely well-known public figure, a member of the Bird's Custard family, Sir Alfred Bird MP, Deputy Lieutenant of Warwickshire, who was killed in 1922.
The personal details of Sir Alfred and his family are already in the public domain and their 1911 census details seem, therefore, to be unprotected by Exemption 41 of the FOI Act. Sir Alfred's widow died in 1943. His son, Sir Robert Bland Bird, died in 1960. His son, Oliver Bird, died in 1963
Information supplied to us by the ICO shows that, between May and November 2005, there were 107 separate entries in its database for the BIRD'S CUSTARD CASE (FS50075721). However, in June 2005, an entry reads, "Work item set to unopened" and, in November 2005, another entry reads: "Work item opened". So the work item was opened 6 months after it was received by the ICO.
Is the Information
Commissioner a teensy-weensy bit contemptuous of Parliament?
We
doubted whether the ICO had sent us all its records on this subject, so we
raised some additional questions. The
following extracts are from two emails sent by David Chapman of the ICO to us
on 3rd February 2006.
ICO Email 6 -
from David Chapman
We are fully aware of the issues referred to in
EDM 1198, and as you know we have received FOI complaints directly relating to them,
but we can confirm that we do not hold any further records regarding this
EDM. The response to an Early Day Motion is primarily the responsibility
of the relevant government department, and as you will be aware the Information
Commissioner is independent of government.
The Information Commissioner has not made any
statement on this matter, and no opinion has been formed on whether this office
will be issuing any advice relating to it in the foreseeable future.
Our comment: David Chapman is confusing two things:
EDM 1198, which asks for advice about a statement of government policy on100-year census closure
The BIRD'S CUSTARD CASE, which is a request for a ruling on the NA's refusal to supply an extract from the 1911 census on the grounds that Exemption 41 of the FOI Act applies.
ICO Email 7 -
from David Chapman
We do not hold any records of general advice given since 2000 by this office in connection with the amendments to Schedule 5 of the Public Records Act 1958. The ICO has had discussions with the National Archives on various issues, but we do not have any recorded information consisting of advice on this particular subject. The National Archives themselves are likely to be the primary source of information regarding amendments to the Public Records Act 1958.
Our comment: At present, it seems that the Commissioner is failing to comply, in a timely manner, with his statutory duties (a) to reach Section 59 decisions and (b) to issue Section 47 advice on these specific matters.
Vital Statistics
Minimum GCSE Grades for employment to ICO Administrative Posts : 5 passes at grade C or above
Approximate number of staff employed by the ICO in Wilmslow (January 2006): 260 employees
Average number of requests received by the ICO for Section 50 Decisions, in a 3 months' period: 300 cases
Section 50 Decision Notices published by the ICO in a 3 month period (November 2005-January 2006): 67 cases
The apparent rate at which the backlog of unresolved ICO cases has grown: more than 200 cases every 3 months
_______________________________________________
The UK Centre for Census Access Studies (Solihull)
Research and consultancy services
Email: denis.mccready@clara.co.uk
Home Page: http://home.clara.net/denis.mccready/index.htm