Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Sustainable Growth Scottish Government
An open letter on a matter of great concern to all in Scotland, perhaps everybody should demand an answer to their concerns from My Swinney. Do we really want to pour out personal information to a foreign private company who can in turn hand it over to a foreign government? Is there no company in Scotland that could do this job, if it needs to be done?
Dear Mr Swinney,
I have already raised this matter with Charles Kennedy MP but his office have pointed out that this is a devolved matter and I should approach you.
I understand that the 2011 Scottish census will be run by an American company (CACI), a wholly-owned subsidiary of CACI International, a US-based defence contractor, who from August 2003 until the early autumn of 2005 was contracted to provide "interrogation services" for the US Army at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. While CACI staff were employed as interrogators at Abu Ghraib, prisoners were humiliated and tortured there by US military police.
It is simply not acceptable that such a company, which is apparently facing criminal charges in the US, should be given a contract to carry out the census. I also understand that our data may be held outside the UK and made available to the US Government under their Patriot Act. This will violate the principle that data is kept confidential for 100 years.
Please clarify the position. If this is correct I think the Scottish people would be well advised to refuse to co-operate until the CACI contract has been cancelled and Scottish people can have confidence that the census will be wholly run by the Scottish government itself and the data will not be made available to any foreign government.
It canny be righ'
