The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the authority to reply.
Letter from Jil Matheson, dated November 2009:
As National Statistician I have been asked to reply to your recent Parliamentary Question asking for what reasons the postcode database being created by the Office for National Statistics will be destroyed after the Census rather than being made available for reuse, as referred to in Recommendation seven of the report of the Power of Information Taskforce. (300277)
A high quality and complete list of addresses will be integral to the 2011 Census. By listing every household it will help to ensure that the Office for National Statistics (ONS) produces accurate results for all local authorities in England and Wales.
ONS will not destroy the register after the census, but Licensing and legal issues around ownership of the source address data mean that we are not able to make the address register available for use by other government departments or others. It is these other national sources to which the Power of Information Taskforce report refers.
We will make all new addresses found by ONS through the census address checking process available to the national address list providers (Royal Mail, Ordnance Survey and Local Authorities) to enhance the national lists. However, addresses found during the main census operation will not be shared, as they are deemed 'personal census data' and are confidential under the 1920 Census Act.
We would like to see the census address register (excluding those addresses found during the census field operation) built upon for future use, but maintenance of the list beyond the 2011 Census falls outside the remit and resources of the current project—and ONS as a whole. Steps are being taken, however, to ensure processes are repeatable and ONS would support the wider use of the register if this can be managed.