Civil liberties group renews call for school census boycott

Liberty said parents should refuse to disclose information about their children's birthplace and nationality amid fears that this information could subsequently be used to deport illegal immigrants.

The call follows concerns the campaign group initially raised in January.

This week the Department for Education updated its guidance for schools and local authorities on how to gather information for the census.

In the revised guidance, the DfE says that while parents and pupils cannot opt out of the census, they have a right to refuse to provide information about ethnicity, language, country of birth, nationality and whether a child's parents are members of the military.

The guidance says that where parents or "mature-enough" pupils refuse to provide such information this must be recorded in the census as "refused".

In addition, schools can only record such information as told to them by parents or mature-enough children.

Despite the revisions, Liberty said it is continuing to urge parents to boycott the census.

"Every child on UK shores has a right to education - and that right isn't dependent on the accident of their own or their parents' place of birth," said Martha Spurrier, director of Liberty.

"To parents and guardians who believe classrooms should be places of learning, growth and hope for the future, our message is clear: refuse, retract, resist.

"If enough people refuse to be complicit in building these foreign children lists, the government won't be able to justify harvesting this data."

Schools and local authorities are required by law to submit school census returns.