IT solutions specialist CACI (UK) has chosen dns to help it deliver data capture and processing services for Scotland’s next census in 2011. The move follows CACI (UK)’s appointment last year by the General Register Office for Scotland which is responsible for taking Scotland’s census.
The appointment fits with CACI (UK)’s policy to purposely choose Scottish suppliers to ensure the census is delivered where possible by local organisations, keeping the economic benefits in Scotland. The census will be the first in Scotland to use both traditional paper and online questionnaires.
dns, an information security services company based in Edinburgh, has been appointed to help CACI (UK) to meet the security standards used in the census, before these are carefully checked by the General Register Office for Scotland.
The specific work of dns will support CACI (UK) in its overarching role of helping GROS in developing the 2011 Census website, printing paper questionnaires, and developing the IT systems for automated handwritten data capture and coding. While CACI (UK) will design and build the IT systems to carry out the data capture and processing services, the General Register Office for Scotland, as owners of the census dataset, will analyse the results and prepare the census data for statistical publication. All personal details are held by the General Register Office for Scotland and kept confidential for 100 years after each census. CACI (UK) has previously delivered services for the 2001 and 2006 censuses for the Republic of Ireland.
The new technology to deliver the census will be tested when residents in west Edinburgh, Lewis and Harris take part in the census rehearsal on 29 March this year. Census day in Scotland will be 27 March 2011; its last census was held in 2001.
Graeme Cox, Managing Director of dns, added: "The integrity of data collection and storage within the census is of paramount importance to every Scottish citizen and dns is delighted to be working with CACI (UK) to deliver such a high profile project."
As part of its contracts dns - like CACI (UK) - will abide by confidentiality guarantees, mandated by Scotland’s census legislation and the Data Protection Act. These are designed to ensure that people can be certain that the personal information they provide for the census will be kept absolutely secure.
