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Census 2011: Ethnicity

Answer

The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician who has been asked to reply. Letter to Lord Laird from the National Statistician, dated May 2006. As National Statistician and Registrar General, I have been asked to reply to your recent Parliamentary Question asking what ethnicity options will be offered on the census forms being considered for the 2011 census (HL5649). It is not possible to confirm what questions are to be included in the 2011 census until the consultation and testing programme is complete and formal approval is given by Parliament in 2010. A White Paper setting out the Government’s proposals is scheduled to be published in autumn 2008. A clear requirement for information on ethnicity and national identity has been identified from the consultation exercise undertaken last year and reported on in The 2011 Census: Assessment of initial user requirements on content for England and Wales, which was published on 8 March 2006. The report can be found on the National Statistics website at www.statistics.gov.uk/about/consultations/2011Census–response.asp. The programme of question development and testing underway for the 2011 census will also inform the content of the 2007 census test, which will include questions to collect information on ethnic group and national identity. The questionnaires to be used in the 2007 test will be finalised in September 2006, but question development and testing will continue until 2009.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

5649; 682 c2-3WA

Session

2005-06

Subjects

Census Forms Ethnic groups

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk