Do you want Lockheed Martin to run the next UK Census in 2011?

The next UK Census will be in 2011. It might be run by an American arms manufacturer. Maybe that's not a good thing.

The Green Party have put together a video explaining the potential significance of the UK government putting the running of the 2011 census out to contract by private companies.

What's the problem?

The process of running the 2011 Census will be contracted out by the Office of National Statistics to a private company.

One of the two contractors in the final round of selection is the arms company Lockheed Martin, 80% of whose business is with the US Department of Defense and other Federal Government agencies.

This might concern you because:

• The Census rules mean that every household will be legally obliged to provide a wide range of personal information that will be handled by the chosen contractor.
• Lockheed Martin produces missiles and land mines which are being used in Afghanistan and Iraq and which are illegal in many countries.
• They also focus on intelligence and surveillance work and boast of their ability to provide ‘integrated threat information’ that combines information from many different sources.
• New questions in the 2011 Census will include information about income and place of birth, as well as existing questions about languages spoken in the household and many other personal details.
• This information would be very useful to Lockheed Martin’s intelligence work, and fears that the data might not be safe could lead to many people not filling in their Census forms.

What can I do?

• Census Alert, the campaign group set up to petition the Government to stop Lockheed Martin's involvement in the 2011 UK Census, has started an e-petition which you can sign on the 10 Downing Street website if you are a UK citizen.
• Write to your MP or local councillor.
  • Contact them via email through writetothem.com.
  • Often a letter has more impact than an email. All MPs can be written to at Parliament using this address:

    House of Commons
    London, SW1A 0AA

    Or write to your Councillors via your local Town Hall.

• You can also sign up to the Census Alert Facebook group, not that it necessarily makes a difference but it does connect you with other people similarly concerned.

The Census Alert campaign is supported by the Green Party, politicians from Plaid Cymru and Labour, and others opposed to the arms trade and concerned about personal privacy. This is not a campaign against the census per se, which is vital to effective UK governance. It is a protest against specifically Lockheed Martin's involvement in the census process.

Source: Census Alert