§ Mr. BrazierTo ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make a statement on the enumeration of the population of Great Britain in the 1991 census.
§ Mr. DorrellThe Registrar General for England and Wales and the Registrar General for Scotland have reported to me and to my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Scotland that, thanks to a good response from the public and good work by census field staff, the enumeration has gone well over the country as a whole. Initially, census staff were not able to contact around 410,000 households, mainly in city areas; but by the end of May many households had responded to a request to post in their forms to the local census manager and only some 160,000 cases remained unresolved, representing about 0.8 per cent. of all households. Action to reduce this number is continuing, including sending a further request to around 10,000 relevant households in those census districts with the highest proportions of households from whom a form has not yet been received.
A preliminary count of the population present on census day, 21 April, in each local authority district will be published in July in preliminary reports for England and Wales and for Scotland.