§ Mr. Madelasked the Secretary of State for Social Services whether, in view of the impending reorganisation of local government areas, and the need for the new authorities to have up-to-date statitics, he is yet in a position to propose the date of the next census of population.
§ Sir K. JosephNo conclusion on this has yet been reached. In the meantime, in view of the long period required to prepare a census, the Office of Population Censuses and Surveys is beginning to test possible techniques now.
The public will be invited to take part in a voluntary test "census" in parts of the London Boroughs of Merton and Wands worth and the Boroughs of Royal Leamington Spa and Warwick on 15th October. The test will cover some 40,000 households and is designed to explore two advances in procedures.
First, in order to reduce the burden of form-filling, each household will be asked a number of questions on basic 328W topics such as age and sex of persons in the household, but only a selection of questions on other topics. The object is to determine whether, for some census topics, adequate sample statistics can be achieved by this means.
I also want to improve the arrangements by which householders can, if they wish, send in their returns otherwise than through the local enumerator, whilst at the same time safeguarding the quality of the information collected. The facilities will be explained to householders in a leaflet accompanying the test "census" forms.
Specimen forms will be placed in the Library in due course.
The test will be entirely confidential and no information given about individual people or households will be passed outside the Office of Population Censuses and Surveys.
An important feature will be that the public will be asked for their own views on the new procedures and I very much hope that everyone invited to take part in the test will do so.
My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Scotland has arranged for simultaneous tests to be made in a number of small areas throughout Scotland covering a total of about 5,000 households. Different procedures will be tried out in Scotland but, as in Enland and Wales, each household will be asked a reduced number of questions.
In 1973 and succeeding years the Office of Population Censuses and Surveys and the General Register Office, Scotland, will be asking for the co-operation of the public in a series of further voluntary tests, both small and large-scale, of other techniques designed to make the census more efficient.