§ Mr. Pavittasked the Secretary of State for Social Services whether a decision has yet been reached on the form of the next census of population.
§ Mr. MoyleThe next census of populalation in the decennial series will take place in the spring of 1981. The content of the census will conform with Directive 73/403/EEC of the Council of the European Communities, under which member States are called upon to take a census of population in 1981 and to prepare tables from the census on a number of topics. Officials have been discussing how to harmonise the censuses of member States.
The census will include questions to meet the needs of central and local gov- 242W ernment, as well as those of the EEC. The registrars-general are consulting local authorities and other users of census statistics, to determine their needs and the extent to which these can be met within the strict limits of a census questionnaire.
A series of voluntary tests is planned between now and 1981 to try out procedures and question wording and to seek the public's views on these matters. The first of these tests will take place next spring and will cover about 50,000 households in parts of Cambridge, East Cambridgeshire, Leicester, Plymouth, West Devon and York. I hope all members of the public invited to take part in the tests will do so.
The answers given by the public in these voluntary tests will be entirely confidential and no information about individual people or households will be passed outside the Office of Population Censuses and Surveys.
A programme of tests in Scotland, starting in the autumn of next year, is being arranged by my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Scotland.