Census: Costs and Benefits (Hansard, 1 May 2001)

The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician, who has been asked to reply.

Letter from the National Statistician, Len Cook, dated 30th April 2001.

As Registrar General for England and Wales I have been asked to reply to your recent questions asking: what is the estimated cost of the 2001 Census; what is the estimated accuracy of the head-count provided by the 1991 Census; how many prosecutions were launched for failure to complete the 1991 Census and what steps were taken to evaluate the costs and benefits of the 2001 Census prior to the decision to proceed with it (HL1819, HL1822, HL1823 and HL1824).

The total estimated cost for the 2001 Census in England and Wales over the 13-year period 1993–94 to 2005–06 is £207 million. The Census is a devolved matter in Scotland and Northern Ireland.

The 1991 Census of Great Britain is estimated to have undercounted the overall total head count of residents by 2.2 per cent.

In 1991 there were 354 prosecutions for refusal to complete a 1991 Census form in England and Wales.

Following the 1991 Census the three United Kingdom Census Offices undertook a Census Policy Evaluation and Reappraisal (PEAR) in 1992 to review the future needs for statistical information on 81WA population and housing and the options for providing such information. The then Government's decision, announced on 13 October 1992, for planning to proceed on the basis of a Census in 2001, followed the results of the PEAR review which confirmed that:

(a) there would be a continuing need both in the public and private sectors for the type of statistical information on population and housing provided by the census over the period 1996–2016; and
(b) there were no alternative sources for providing such information on a nationwide standard basis for local areas.

In addition to this review, a major survey of census users was carried out in 1994 to obtain user opinion of the efficacy of the 1991 Census and requirements for 2001. Almost 1,000 users throughout the United Kingdom responded to the survey in one way or another, and the continuing need for statistical information on population and housing was once again clearly stated.

Throughout 1997, the Census Offices conducted a consultation exercise among the census user community to ascertain the business cases for a range of topics that were being considered for inclusion in the 2001 Census. In summary, the criteria for accepting these topics were:

that there was a clearly demonstrated need;
that users' requirements could not adequately be met by information from other sources;
that they should be shown, in tests, to have had no significantly adverse effect on the Census as a whole, particularly the level of public response; and
that practicable questions could be devised to collect data which is sufficiently accurate to meet users' requirements.

This information, and the details of the Government's proposals for the 2001 Census and the uses to which the information to be collected would be put, were set out in a White Paper 'The 2001 Census of Population' (Cm 4253) published in March 1999, a copy of which is in the House of Lords Library.