17 January 2003
The authority has told Public Finance the ONS had given it confidential information that provided 'compelling evidence' that its population figure was wrong.
But, in an interview with PF, chief executive Peter Rogers said that ONS officials had forbidden Westminster from passing on the data to local government minister Nick Raynsford. The authority had planned to include the information in its response to the finance settlement consultation.
'We have information that cannot be sent to the minister. It is a bizarre state of affairs that Nick Raynsford is not allowed to see the figures,' Rogers said. 'We are taking legal advice on a number of issues and ONS's non-release of data is one of them.'
Westminster has not revealed what the data measured, but indicated that it related to the number of households, at ward and borough-wide level, used to conduct the census count in the borough.
The two organisations have been locked in a bitter dispute ever since the 2001 census showed an apparent 26% drop in the number of residents in the central London borough in just one year.
Westminster's finance settlement response, submitted on January 14, said the confidential information was 'crucial' to proving that the 2001 census population figure of 181,000, 64,000 fewer than ONS's mid-year estimate of 245,000 for 2000, was inaccurate.
'The ONS has indicated that it is unwilling to allow the council to disclose the actual census household count at either ward or city-wide level to the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister,' the document said.
'We wish and need to make representations about the confidential data provided by the ONS. It seems to us that non-disclosure to Her Majesty's Government of information possessed by the ONS is unjustifiable.'
A spokesman for the ONS said that Westminster had been placed under a duty of confidentiality when the data was released to them because it was still provisional and could change.
He said that, while the information at ward level would not be published until late summer, the borough-wide figures would be released shortly. 'This information will be published in mid-February, so all we are talking about is a matter of advance access.'
The spokesman added that, if ministers or ODPM officials were to request the information due out next month at this stage, it was 'unlikely to be a problem' for them to receive it.
PFjan2003
