§ Mr. Wilkinsonasked the Secretary of State for Social Services why British residents of East European nationality displaced from States which have been incorporated into the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics by force are to be required to register as Soviet citizens in the 1971 Census; and whether he will now announce plans for such persons to register their ethnic nationality rather than citizenship of a régime which they do not recognise.
§ Sir K. JosephThe Census of Population to be held on 25th April next is in no sense a registration of the population but a purely statistical inquiry. No questions are being asked on either race, nationality or citizenship, but the form requires the country of birth of each individual and the country of birth of his parents to be recorded.
In order to obtain the information on a standard basis the public are being asked to enter the present name of the 271W country in which their place of birth is now situated. There is however, no objection to persons born in identifiable countries now within the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics recording that country (e.g., Byelorussia, Ukraine, Latvia) as their own or their parents' country of birth.