Census Form (Hansard, 18 December 2000)

Mr. Gareth Thomas
To ask the Secretary of State for Wales if he will make a statement as to the proposed census form for Wales. [142379]

§ Mr. Paul Murphy
The Government have made an unprecedented commitment to ensuring a successful census in Wales. Anyone who writes that they are Welsh in the ethnic identity section of the census form will be counted as such. Unlike a simple tick box this will identify those Welsh people who are from black, asian or other backgrounds. We are explicitly recognising the diversity of those who regard themselves as Welsh and who have other ethnic backgrounds.
As with every census there will be an advertising campaign to make sure that everyone fills the forms in. But in Wales there will be additional emphasis on making sure that people are aware that they can state that they are Welsh.
A question on the country of birth will enable people to indicate that they were born in Wales and respondents will be asked whether they can understand, speak, read or write in the Welsh language.
An expanded and enhanced Labour Force Survey will ask questions about Welsh identity for the first time, and the Office for National Statistics has pledged to publish a special report based on these findings, combined with information from the census.

Mr. Gareth Thomas
To ask the Secretary of State for Wales what discussions he has had with the First Secretary of the National Assembly for Wales on the proposed census form for Wales. [142380]

§ Mr. Paul Murphy
I have regular discussions with the First Secretary about a range of issues, including the 2001 census.
As the census informs billions of pounds of spending in Wales, whether through the Welsh Block grant, allocations to police or fire services, or overall measures of economic performance and thus economic aid, we have discussed how any disruption of the census, either through non co-operation or eleventh hour changes to its format, runs the risk of losing precious resources for Wales.