§ Lord Oakeshott of Seagrove Bayasked Her Majesty's Government:
In which local authorities the 2001 census figure for pensioners exceeds the corresponding figure from pensions data by more than 10 per cent as referred to in paragraph 44 of the 9th Report of the HoC Committee on the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister. (HC 492–1). [HL4529]
Lord Mclntosh of HaringeyThe information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician, who has been asked to arrange for a reply to be given.
Letter from the National Statistician, Len Cook, to Lord Oakenshott of Seagrove Bay, dated 6 October 2003.
As National Statistician and Registrar General for England and Wales, I have been asked to reply to your recent question asking about how pension figures from the 2001 Census compare with the corresponding 39WA pensions data, as referred to in paragraph 44 of the 9th Report of the House of Commons Committee on the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister. (HL4529).
There are four Local Authorities in England and Wales for which the 2001 Census figure for pensioners exceeds the corresponding figure from pensions data by more than 10 per cent. These are:
- Kensington & Chelsea
- Rushmoor
- Tameside
- Wear Valley
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) used pensions data in the quality assurance part of the One Number Census (ONC) process. The populations of each local authority by age and sex were compared against the diagnostic ranges derived from rolled-forward population estimates and aggregated administrative sources (such as pensions data). These ranges gave a plausible set of values with which we would, prior to the Census, expect the ONC estimates to be comparable. Where the ONC estimates fell outside of the diagnostic ranges, extensive checks of the ONC results were undertaken with respect to sample sizes, outliers, etc. and action was taken if any issues were identified. Further information on the ONC quality assurance, and the data used to create the diagnostic ranges, can be found on the National Statistics website at http://www.statistics.gov.uk/ census2001/onc_quality_info.asp.
It is important to note that the pensions data used for comparison was adjusted pensions data because the unadjusted pensions data had a number of problems, for example, many of the postcodes were missing, contained errors, or were out of date; there was a lag between people moving house and the records being updated; and there were several different forms of state pension, which lead to some duplication of records. ONS liaised with the Department for Work and Pensions and Oxford University to obtain 'clean' pensions data relating to May 2000, but some inaccuracies will undoubtedly remain. There is also a difference of almost a year between the date of the pensions information and Census day. These points should be borne in mind when making any comparisons.