Your Privacy

Scotland's Census Rehearsal 2019

We will keep all information we collect as part of the census rehearsal confidential. After we have used this information to help test our systems, we will destroy it in a secure way within five years.

Personal information you provide for the rehearsal will not be used as part of your census 2021 return.

It is against the law for anybody working with your census rehearsal information to release any personal details. 

Scotland's Census 2021

All personal information that you put into your census return will be kept secure and will be kept confidential for 100 years.

It is against the law for anybody who works on the census to make public any personal details from the census during the 100 year period.

After 100 years, your census return will be made public in accordance with the law of the time.

Access to personal census information is tightly controlled and we keep the number of people who see it to a minimum.

Details may be shared for research and statistical use. Where this happens, it will be in a secure way and your name and address will be removed.

It is against the law for anybody to use this information to identify someone.

More information about this can be found in our privacy notice.

You can also read Data Protection Impact Assessments that we have produced for Census 2021.