Security News > 2021 > March > Ministry of Defence tells contractors not to answer certain UK census questions over security fears
The Ministry of Defence has ordered its contractors not to answer certain questions on the UK's once-in-a-decade census - despite threats of £1,000 fines being handed to people who don't complete the national survey.
The Ministry of Defence has taken a curious line against the census, urging defence personnel and contractors to give incomplete answers to four questions - and to ignore one altogether.
An Industry Security Notice issued on 15 March and aimed at defence contractors urges them not to give full and complete answers to questions 41-42, 44, and 50.
An MoD spokeswoman told The Register: "Some census questions could identify contractors' status and increase the security risk to themselves and others.
These questions could identify their status within the national defence and in turn increase the security risk to themselves and any other people on their census return, if their paper questionnaire return was to be intercepted.
We are further told that the advice not to answer what you do won't affect the census outputs: by way of example, the spokesman said a teacher who answered "I teach six-year-olds" might be classified as a primary school teacher if their first answer wasn't precise enough.