Oral question asked in the House of Commons, by Paul Rowen (Liberal Democrat). It was answered on Wednesday, 9 December 2009 on behalf of the Cabinet Office.

2011 Census

Question: Given the costs of the census, does the Minister think that including questions on a person's immigration status is a useful use of public funds, when that information can be collected more accurately by other means?

Answer: On the issue of costs, the benefits to the Treasury from the information that it gets from the census amounts to the equivalent of around £700 million. That far exceeds the costs of the census, but the point that the hon. Gentleman makes is also not valid because the ONS chooses the questions independently. It looks at why the questions are needed, and the answers to them are used to ensure that the billions of pounds of public funds are disbursed on the basis of accurate information.

Secondary information