Oral question asked in the House of Lords, by Lord Moser (Crossbench). It was answered on Wednesday, 15 December 2010.

Census

Question: Perhaps I should declare an interest in that I used to be responsible for the census, I do not know how many years ago. There is no question that the traditional census is of enormous importance for the country to understand our population, migration and much else. I am delighted that next year’s census is going ahead, as planned. That is good news. As to the future, however, there are now serious alternatives which have been followed and adopted successfully in a number of other countries. Most Scandinavian countries and Germany now use alternatives, which is what is on the cards. Will the Minister assure us that following those alternatives, which are very complicated, will have full support and collaboration from the Government?

Answer: I thank the noble Lord, Lord Moser, for his question and contribution. He speaks from a great deal of experience in this subject. The most important thing is to emphasise that proposals will come to Parliament before any developments are taken forward. One of the difficulties with the current census is that it is usually way out of date by the time it is actually published. We live in a very mobile society, as we all know, and to try to get a dynamic model would produce considerable advantages in the allocation of resources and the ability of government properly to address the issues of the day.

Secondary information