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Census (England and Wales) Order 2009

The ONS has put in place additional contractual and operational arrangements in this contract to ensure that the US authorities could not gain access to census data through, for instance, the Patriot Act. These arrangements include that all data processing will be carried out in the UK, no data will leave or be held at any point outside the UK, all data are the property of the ONS and only UK/EU-owned companies will have access to the personal census data. The only people to have full access to the full census data set in the operational data centre will be the ONS staff. The noble Lord, Lord Bates, asked about response rates for the recent census rehearsal. The responses are still coming in so the number is increasing, but at the moment they are at around 35 per cent. This is lower than hoped, although we have to remember that this, unlike the census, was a voluntary exercise. The ONS anticipated a much lower response than we will get in 2011, because a compulsory response will be much higher. After a promising start with response rates ahead of expectations, returns are now levelling off and lag behind expected levels. But the rehearsal is voluntary, and known hard-to-reach areas were selected for the rehearsal, which also tips the result. The exercise was not spread across, as it were; those areas were selected for the rehearsal as being hard to reach. Follow-up activities have concluded with census collectors calling on households that have not responded in order to obtain a response, and this follow-up has increased the response rate considerably. A number of measures have been taken to rehearse the actions that we will take in 2011 to increase response rates, and research is now under way to discover why response rates are lower than expected. Another question asked by the noble Lord, Lord Bates, was how many people are expected to respond online. The current assumption is that around 25 per cent are expected to do so. Perhaps I may give noble Lords a few comparisons. Canada achieved 18 per cent in 2006. Scotland offered online completion for its rehearsal in March 2009 and had an 11 per cent internet response rate without any real publicity campaign advertising that the internet was available. However, in the England and Wales rehearsal, only around 9 per cent of returned responses have been made via the internet. Again, there was little publicity about the internet option. ONS is building the system to cope with 6 million returns. If more people try to use the online system at once than the system can cope with, new users will be asked to try again later. This is called "graceful deferral". However, the answer to the noble Lord’s original question about assumptions is 25 per cent. The noble Lord, Lord Bates, also asked how many of the data are estimated—he rather bated me by using the word "guessed"—as opposed to actual. He may be thinking of a figure that was quoted during a recent Public Accounts Select Committee by Professor Rees. The professor now accepts that the figure was wrong and has requested that a change be made to the Public Accounts Select Committee transcript. Six per cent of people did not return a census questionnaire in 2001. On top of this, 4 per cent of census data were missing from the returned forms and had to be imputed. This means that 10 per cent of the total census data set had to be imputed, not 40 per cent. Therefore, we are saying that the estimate was 10 per cent in the 2001 census, not 40 per cent. The noble Lord, Lord Bates, asked about published response rates from the rehearsal. At present—they are still coming in—the figure is 35 per cent. He also asked about the assumptions made about calls to the helpline and what steps are being taken. Many steps have been taken to reduce the likelihood of a crisis of calls to the contact centre. In addition, there will be a self-help website, reducing the burden, we hope, on the telephone contact centre. So we are hoping to learn from the lesson of 2001. The noble Lord talked about the complexity of the forms and asked whether that reduced the response rate. He asked why, for example, the questionnaire was so long. Widespread consultation by the ONS shows that there is a demand for far more questions than could possibly be accommodated. As the noble Lord, Lord Maclennan, said, the number of pages per person has gone up from three to four, but this is due partly to making the layout of the pages clearer. The number of columns has been reduced from three to two, which makes the form easier to complete. The 32-page booklet for households contains forms for six individuals. In 2001, the booklet had forms for five individuals. Therefore, fewer households will need to request further forms from the ONS. The issue of visitors has also been raised. Visitors had always previously been counted but not in 2001; before 2001, full details were collected. In 2011, only a small set of questions will be included in order to reduce the burden on the public. We are asking the question about visitors to enable an accurate count. We believe there was an undercounting in 2001 because the fact that people were visiting homes other than their own was not taken into account. We have learnt this key lesson from 2001; the question about visitors on the night is important. The noble Lord, Lord Bates, referred to the 2001 census not accurately counting the population and asked how this would be dealt with in 2011. There are more questions about visitors, residents, second addresses and so on, which will enable a better, more accurate measurement, and there will be a much better follow-up to non-response. We are focusing the enumerators on those hard-to-count areas. They will physically go to people in real time and say, "Have you any problems? Are you able to fill in your form? How can we help?" That will, we hope, institute a far better follow-up than in 2001. Local liaison will identify hard-to-count areas and we will increase the hours spent on follow-up to non-responding households. In that way, we will develop an improved register. The noble Lord, Lord Bates, referred to 7 per cent of respondents not completing a form but only a few being prosecuted, and asked what steps we are taking to improve the situation. There will be a dedicated non-compliance staff to strengthen the process. In 2001, it was part of the regular field staff’s responsibility to caution people, but this time there will be a dedicated non-compliance staff and prosecutions will be pursued in cases of persistent refusal to respond. The noble Lord said that the 2001 e-mail support was inundated and asked how provisions could be made to improve it in 2011. Online help is available and is expected to reduce demand on public help facilities. E-mail queries will not be supported in 2011. I shall write to the noble Lord on that. I am confused by that answer and he may well be too. I shall make sure that he has a written answer. On the question of what steps ONS has taken to avoid spam e-mails, ONS will never request information from the public via e-mail and we will make this publicly known. I was asked how many enumerators we envisage for 2011; the answer is 35,000. I do not have at hand the numbers who will have the right to caution, but there will be a dedicated team within those enumerators with that right. Why do we ask the question about the number of bedrooms? It is to provide a more accurate and comparable measure of overcrowding. The two older measures of overcrowding were the space standard and the rooms standard. These can now be expanded to include the bedroom standard. This is explained in the Government paper Tackling overcrowding in England: An action plan, published by CLG in December 2007. The charity Shelter has urged the Government to use the bedroom standard to measure overcrowding. Overcrowding, as noble Lords will know, is an indicator of housing deprivation. Living in overcrowded conditions is associated with adverse personal and social health effects. Information will be essential for taking forward work on decent homes. There is also a direct link with the allocation of improvement grants for local authorities. The question will help to ensure that resources are directed to the areas of greatest need. The noble Lord also asked about dealing with frivolous answers—for example, the Jedi issue in 2001. It is a legal requirement to complete a form correctly. However, if a person believes themselves to be a Jedi knight, the ONS must make use of those data. ONS publicity nearer to the census will aim to counter any such campaigns arising by highlighting the benefit to communities of having an accurate census. I hope that that has answered the noble Lord’s questions. If I have left any out, we will look at Hansard.