By Lynford Simpson, Staff Reporter
Campbell
THE STATISTICAL Institute of Jamaica (STATIN) wants its documents to remain classified and out of the public's domain, even after the Access to Information Act is passed into law.
A joint select committee of Parliament is examining the Bill which Information Minister Colin Campbell says is to be debated by March 31. Once it is passed by both Houses of Parliament and the Governor-General gives his assent to it, the public will have greater access to government information. However, matters relating to national security and other sensitive data will remain classified for a specified period.
In a written submission to the parliamentary committee, STATIN said its view was that the Bill, as drafted, would affect its management of information and the public's right of access to information collected from individuals, households and business establishments now and in the future.
It pointed to the Section 8(2) of the Statistics Act which states that STATIN is barred from releasing any information that would make it possible to identify an individual or business unless written permission is granted.
The institute publishes information monthly, quarterly and annually. Access to these publications is available free at STATIN's offices throughout the island.
In making its case for privacy, STATIN pointed to the population and housing census now under way, noting that the public was "very suspicious" about data being collected. This was illustrated recently in some areas by the lack of co-operation by householders in the census, STATIN said. According to the institute, this was also demonstrated in the low responses to its routine questionnaires.
STATIN has suggested an amendment to Section 6 of the Act to embody not only the right of access to official documents held by public authorities but to include the corresponding obligation of the individual, household and the business establishment to provide information when required to do so.
Also, it recommended that there be a specific provision for repeal of the Official Secrets Act in whole or in part and that the Bill states what constitutes an official secret document as opposed to an exempt document if it was not intended to repeal the Official Statistics Act.
The Statistics Act authorises STATIN to collect statistics relating to population and housing; immigration and emigration; vital occurrences and morbidity; social and educational matters; imports and exports; trade and commerce; wages, hours and conditions of labour and cost-of-living index; employment, unemployment and payrolls among others.
