Census form set to ask if you’re gay or transgender

ORGANISERS of the next national census are planning to include a question about sexuality.

Estimates of gay, lesbian and bisexual numbers are currently drawn up on a city or regional basis only.

And the Health Service, town halls and voluntary groups want to know what level of service they should provide in much smaller, more precise geographical areas.

The census may also include a question about gender identity to try to establish the size of the transgender population. Campaigners complain there are no reliable numbers on those changing or questioning their sex.

Existing figures fail to back up their claims that one in 100 people are ‘gender non-conforming’.

The questions on sexual and gender identity are under consideration for the census of spring 2021.

Answering the questions is compulsory and those who fail to do so face a criminal record and a fine of up to £1,000. However the Office for National Statistics is considering whether people may be allowed to refuse to reply to the questions on sexuality.

The headcount will be the first to be carried out mainly online, according to the plans being drawn up for the 2021 project and made public yesterday.

The great majority are expected to answer through their computers, tablets or mobiles.

Traditional paper forms will still be available, and are likely to be used by older people, the poor who cannot afford computers and those in the countryside with weak broadband coverage.

A largely online census is likely to cost taxpayers around £700million, £300million less than the projected price of a form-based system.

An even cheaper option, which would involve a trawl of computer databases, may come into operation in future censuses.

Census chiefs said there would be around 43 questions for each person in a household. The 32-page form used in 2011 had the same number and was widely criticised for being too long and complex.

The plans released yesterday said allowances would be made for the possibility that people would not answer properly. Past respondents have claimed their religion is that of the Jedi in Star Wars.

A question being dropped is the one asking the jobless to state the last year in which they worked.

The ONS said the numbers of gays and lesbians were estimated through its large-scale Integrated Household Survey. But this can only examine regions and big cities.

‘Data users stated a requirement for information on sexual identity at local authority area level and below to aid service provision,’ the census plans said. ‘The user responses sug-

‘Underpins many policies’

gest that the 2021 census should be considered as a way to meet requirements for data on small areas and populations.’

The ONS said that it had been told by the National Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender Partnership that ‘without data on the size of the LGB population in local areas, public sector agencies, such as local authorities, hospitals and GP practices, cannot be certain that the services they provide fully meet the needs of all the people in their localities’.

Census director Ian Cope said: ‘Given the unique status of the census, it is not surprising that there is continued user need for existing topics as well as requests for new topics to be included in 2021.

‘As data from the census underpins so many important policies and decisions that affect us all, we need to make sure that people find it straightforward and acceptable to complete.

‘We will continue to discuss this balance with everyone who will be relying on the trusted data that the 2021 census will provide, and to test different question options.’

The census was first run in 1801 and has been carried out every decade since, except in the war year of 1941. The headcount was nearly given up after the 2001 operation missed more than a million people. But ministers decided to maintain the run of censuses after the 2011 exercise proved more successful.

The ONS said that according to its surveys 1.6 per cent of adults in the UK reported their sexual identity as lesbian, gay or bisexual in 2014.