§ Mr. McNamaraTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will break down the publicity budget for publicising the 2001 census; what the timetable is for the publicity campaign; what its objectives are; what initiatives are being taken to target specific ethnic groups and regions; what are the objectives of each; and what initiatives are being prepared to make children aware of the census. [146679]
§ Miss Melanie Johnson[holding answer 23 January 2001]: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician. I have asked him to reply.
Letter from Len Cook to Mr. Kevin McNamara, dated 28 March 2001:
As National Statistician and Registrar General for England and Wales I have been asked to reply to your question asking for a breakdown of the publicity budget for the 2001 Census and other matters related to the publicity of the Census (146679).
The breakdown of the paid publicity budget for the period 2000/01 to 2001/02 is:
Main advertising campaign: £4,728,000
Other publicity activities: £933,000
A carefully planned calendar of public relations events has been organised enabling Census Area Managers to run successful local, yet nationally coherent, campaigns.
The objectives of the overall publicity campaign are to establish the necessary level of advance awareness of the Census across the population and to build up public confidence in the Census as a socially worthwhile exercise that is undertaken in the strictest confidence. The banner logo 'Count Mc In' aims to encourage universal self-inclusion in the Census.
The campaign encompasses both paid and free media with the latter being instigated at local level by Census Area Managers working to a centrally co-ordinated PR calendar. Local PR in England has also benefited greatly through a strategic partnership with BBC Local Radio.
The full range of ethnic titles will be used to advertise the Census to ethnic minorities as a component within the main campaign designed to address these communities in a sympathetic and appropriate way.
The Census form questions and the information leaflet have been translated into 24 commonly used foreign languages—in addition to Welsh in Wales—and will be available from April 1, as will the 646W dedicated Language Helpline which can offer help in 12 languages. In addition, an ethnic version of the promotional video has been produced using an Asian celebrity, which we hope to place in unused air-time on Asian cable TV.
Customised press notices associated with all the main PR events will be disseminated to all ethnic minority media outlets. For our Recruitment Blitz the Press notice directed at ethnic minority media carried a supporting quote from Civil Service Commissioner Karamjit Singh CBE, and we specifically targeted metropolitan areas at 14 sites around the country where there would be good links with local TV and radio as well as a high concentration of ethnic minority populations. Our partnership with BBC Local Radio has gained us influence over the BBC's Asian Language Network, which has already run a number of Census promotions.
These several activities complement the Community Liaison Programmes pursued at local level by Census Area Managers with the overall aim of raising general public awareness about the census, facilitating the enumeration to ensure the fullest possible coverage and helping to provide a source of potential field staff.
The Census2001 Count Me In website contains a wealth of material about the Census in general including a number of factsheets as well as covering specific areas such as recruitment.
There are two major initiative to make children and teachers aware of the Census:
CensusAtSchool is au outline census for schoolchildren asking questions with youth appeal (covering topics such as mobile phone/pet ownership; football team; height of children compared with 1830s). There are on-line classroom activities that will enable the findings to be analysed using statistical techniques. The results from CensusAtSchool attracted major national and regional press coverage when released in February. The national findings are available on the website www.censusatschool.ntu.ac.uk for schools to make comparisons of local and national trends.
Census In School is an educational package for teachers containing modules cleating with the use of Census information which is mapped to the National Curriculum. A CD-ROM version is attached to each pack, and these have been distributed to both junior and secondary schools.