ONS consultation on the form of the next Census - important

For over 200 years every household has been required to respond to the census. The census provides a huge amount of extremely accurate and useful information which is fundamental to decision making on billions of pounds of public and private development and investment. As well as for family history enthusiasts

The Office for National Statistics has to carry out a review after each census. The 2011 census cost £482m ONS predicts that the next full census could cost £625m. ONS is consulting on two possible approaches to the next census in 2021:

• primarily online every 10 years as existing
• using existing government and private data and compulsory annual surveys.

This is your opportunity to respond to these options. The census provides extremely important fine grain information for town and parish councils.There is a danger that the cheaper option (annual surveys) would not go down to the same geographical detail as a full census which would make it difficult for well evidenced decision making at our level of local government.

The full consultation document is on the ONS website

Responses to ONS by 13th December