Contingency plan to delay 2021 census

CONTINGENCY PLANS are being looked at in case next year’s March census is disrupted if any coronavirus lockdown measures remain in place.

Peers have been told that while the Office for National Statistics is still working towards March 21 as the date for the once-in-adecade count, it will be guided by medical advice.

Cabinet Office Minister Lord True made his comments as he was pressed by members of the House of Lords about the implications of the current pandemic on staging the UK-wide data-gathering exercise, used to plan public services and guide policy.

Conservative former Minister Lord Young of Cookham said: “We all hope that by next March we will have put this pandemic behind us, but we don’t know where there will be a second wave, whether social distancing will have been entirely phased out.

“What contingency arrangements are there if by any chance life has not returned to normal?”

In response, Lord True said: “Census day is still nearly a year away and currently, of course, the Office for National Statistics is working to deliver the census as planned. But, like any other part of government, the ONS will be guided by the scientific evidence and the evolving advice from medical experts.

“We are at the same time, therefore, considering the contingencies that may be needed if measures to contain the spread of Covid-19 remain in place or indeed again become necessary in the run-up to census day itself.”