§ Mr. SpearingTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what information will be available to the public from the 1991 census, additional to that available to the public from the 1981 census.
§ Mr. DorrellResults from the 1991 census, like those from the 1981 census, will be available as published statistical reports to be laid before Parliament and as abstracts of statistical information supplied on request, as authorised under section 4 of the Census Act 1920.
The results will include statistical information from new questions on ethnic group, limiting long-term illness, term-time address of students and schoolchildren, hours worked weekly, availability of central heating and a count of dwellings by geographical area and type, Statistical information will be available, for the first time in England and Wales, for geographical areas specified as groups of postcodes.
Two new types of abstract are in preparation. The Registrars-General have agreed in principle to supply the 263W Economic and Social Research Council with two samples of anonymised records from the 1991 census, as announced in my reply to my hon. Friend the Member for Westminster, North (Sir J. Wheeler), on 19 July 1990, column 707. The Office of Population Censuses and Surveys is also planning to produce a directory showing which postcodes are located in each census enumeration district.
All census output will be designed to guard against disclosing information about identifiable people or households. Information on the plans for the production of reports and abstracts is given in census newsletters, copies of which are in the Library. Further details will be available in prospectuses issued by OPCS.