This is according to the government’s latest post-Cabinet statement released on Thursday.

The statement said: “Cabinet approved the General Statistical Data Policy by the Central Statistics Office and decided that a legal review of the Statistics Act be undertaken with a view to draft the required regulations and enact provisions that require mandatory compliance on the part of data providers.”

This decision follows reports early last year from the Director of Central Statistics Office, Raymond Phillips that persons have been “reluctant to cooperate” with census officers in the past.

Addressing those confidentiality concerns at the time, Phillips said: “Persons should not be reluctant to cooperate with our census officers as the strictest confidence is applied to the data we collect.” He explained, adding, “This data is not shared with any other Government agency as the Statistical Act prohibits this type of data sharing.”

The BVI”s population census was planned for June 2020 postponed indefinitely due to the COVID-19 pandemic.