Hundreds face census prosecution

Hundreds of people are being prosecuted for refusing to complete the 2011 census because of its links to an arms manufacturer, campaign group Count Me Out has said.

Up to 400 are being chased up for not taking part in the nationwide survey, which the group said was believed to be due to Lockheed Martin being used as a technical consultant by the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

It said 120 people have already been found guilty, a huge increase on the last census in 2001, when only 38 people were prosecuted.

Count Me Out spokeswoman Kat Hobbs said: "Ten times more prosecutions than the last census shows that people are really angry about the involvement of anarms company.

"The Office of National Statistics can no longer deny that giving the census contract to Lockheed Martin was a mistake when so many people are being prosecuted as a result of it."

Hundreds of people are reportedly being prosecuted for not filling in the 2011 Census 

She said one of those to be taken to court is conscientious objector John Voysey, 82.

He said: "The same reason why I registered as a conscientious objector in 1947 means that I cannot do the census if an arms company is involved. My objection to the arms trade is a deeply held religious belief and leaves me with no choice but to break the law.

"It is an outrage that Lockheed Martin was given the census contract and so many people were forced to choose between their conscience and breaking the law."

An ONS spokesman said: "There are always a number of people who, for whatever reason, fail to fill in their census. If there is evidence that they are wilfully refusing then a prosecution may take place. It is technically a crime."

He said Lockheed Martin had also been involved in the 2001 census, but a spokesman for Count Me Out said that there was less publicity about it then.

https://network23.org/countmeout/(Count Me Out)

©Press Association 

University Applications Fall 10% In A Year

University Applications Fall 10% In A Year

The number of students applying to university in 2011 was down by 10% compared to the previous year, Sky has learned. 

The report to be published on Monday by the university application service UCAS, will show that many thousands of students will not continue into higher education. 

University Applications Fall 10% In A Year

Sky's deputy political editor Joey Jones said, "the government is preparing for a fairly ugly figure. Those people who have criticised the goverernment's plans on fees will say this suggests that people are being put off applying.

"I think the government will say there are reasons for this. Some of it is to do with demographics - there was a big spike in 18-year-olds last year. There is also the fact that some people decided to get in under the wire (before the new upper fee limit) and did not take a year off when they might otherwise have done.

"But clearly a drop of that magnitude is a concern for the government and they will be looking very closely at this to try and determine whether it is the case that people are being put off."

Month-by-month statistics measuring applicants for the last quarter of 2011 do show that people from lower income households are not being put off as much as people from wealthier backgrounds.

But Joey Jones said that while this is a "crumb of comfort," ministers will still be worried. "This is a policy area that the government - but particulalry the Liberal Democrats - have come in for an enourmous amount of flack about," he said.

Profit warnings rise at fastest rate in 10 years

LONDON (Reuters) - Profit warnings from companies jumped more than 70 percent in the final three months of 2011, the biggest quarterly rise for a decade, as markets were rocked by economic uncertainty, Ernst & Young said on Sunday.

Companies quoted on London's main list and junior AIM market issued 88 profit warnings in the final quarter, up from 51 in the third quarter, the accountancy firm said.

"As evidenced by the sharp jump in the number of warnings, 2011 was a tough year for many companies and this year is likely to continue in the same vein with the gap between the winners and losers widening," said Alan Hudson, head of Ernst & Young's UK restructuring practice.

"Many businesses are still expanding profitably, but others - the zombie companies - remain moribund by debt or defunct business models, unable to build value or gain momentum in these challenging economic conditions."

National Debate: Starts in February

The hardest hit sector was retail, where an 8 percent fall in consumers' disposable income led to the worst Christmas since 2008 for many shop groups.

Retailers issued 39 profit warnings in 2011, more than in the whole of 2009 and 2010 combined, it said.

The pain has not eased in the early weeks of 2012, with clothing chain Peacocks calling in administrators, and Tesco issuing its first profit warning in living memory.

Support services and software and computer services also suffered from weaker end markets, Ernst & Young said.

The leap in warnings could mark the start of an upward trend that could continue well into 2012, Hudson said, although he added that recent high-profile warnings had lowered profit expectations.

(Reporting by Paul Sandle; Editing by Hans-Juergen Peters)