The population census will take place every five years if the proposed Statistics Act is approved by the House of Assembly.

The bill, which was tabled in the House last week, will be the governing act for the statistics department.

Current law provides for a population census to be taken every ten years. But the bill would mandate a census every five years starting in the year 2010.

It also proposes to give the Chief Statistician additional powers including authority to conduct compulsory surveys in a number of areas.

"The bill gives the Chief Statistician authority to conduct surveys in general," said Janet Smith Bradshaw, the Chief Statistician.

She said a number of voluntary surveys, such as the household expenditure survey and the annual economic activity survey, conducted in the past will be compulsory - with people bound by the law to respond.

And up to $5,000 in fines could be levied against people who fail to provide required information or who provide false information.

"It's important to note the bill protects respondents and individual information is kept confidential," Mrs. Smith Bradshaw said.

"We want to make it very clear we take very seriously the issue of confidentiality."

The bill provides the strongest penalties - a $5,000 fine or up to one year in prison - for statistics department employees who breach the confidentiality requirements.

And businesses are not required under the bill to disclose trade secrets.

Mrs. Bradshaw said that the overall objective is to have a more integrated approach to the collection of statistics.

"People will appreciate that the objective at the end of the day will be to see that we have good quality data that will allow us to make quality decisions."

She told The Royal Gazette that the department is currently meeting with stakeholders to explain the bill and its requirements and generate feedback.

"We want to build partnerships and work out with respondents how best we can go about conducting these surveys."