Now SNP’s census shambles costs us another £10m
‘Bungled’ survey delayed, with 604,000 yet to fill in the forms
SCOTLAND’S delayed census will cost taxpayers an extra £10million after being ‘utterly bungled’ by SNP ministers.
Almost a quarter of households have not completed it, forcing the Government to extend the deadline by a month.
Constitution Secretary Angus Robertson confirmed yesterday the move will cost an additional £9.76million, on top of the £138million already spent on the scheme.
Critics attacked the SNP for ignoring warnings last year against carrying out the survey 12 months later than the rest of the UK.
Tory MSP Stephen Kerr said: ‘The argument didn’t make sense then, but opponents were hushed because the Scottish Government knew better. It turns out they didn’t. They have utterly bungled it.’
Mr Robertson revealed that 604,000 households have still not filled in the census – an offence punishable by a fine of up to £1,000.
He said Scots will have another four weeks to fill in the survey but insisted that postponing the census ‘remains the right decision’.
When the last survey was carried out in 2011, 74 per cent had returned their census in ten days. This year, it took five weeks to reach that milestone. South of the Border,
‘Nothing short of disastrous’
97 per cent of households have completed the questionnaires.
Return rates vary across Scotland, from 82.2 per cent in Aberdeenshire to 65.5 per cent in Glasgow as of April 25. At the last census, the final response rate was 94 per cent, with every council area achieving upwards of 90 per cent completion.
This year’s Scottish census – the first one to be primarily carried out online – attracted controversy before the delay was announced, with concerns about some of the questions and the decision to allow trans people to give their sex as one that is different from their birth certificate for the first time.
Scottish Conservative constitution spokesman Donald Cameron said ‘The SNP’s handling of Scotland’s census has been nothing short of disastrous.
‘It was needlessly delayed by a year and has ended up costing taxpayers an extra £30million. Almost a quarter of households have not completed it ahead of the SNP’s initial deadline.
‘The SNP ignored Conservative calls to run the census in sync with the rest of the UK.
‘They would have clearly benefited from a UK-wide publicity campaign, which delivered an extremely high response rate elsewhere. Despite those warnings, the SNP insisted on going it alone and claimed this would ensure the highest possible response rate.
‘Now we see the exact opposite has occurred.
‘Everything about this census response represents a significant failure from the SNP Government, which will have serious, long-term implications for public policy making.’
Liberal Democrat MSP Willie Rennie said: ‘Two thousand years ago in Judea, people had to trek all the way back to their home town to fill in the census. Even that awful inconvenience was still probably more effective than the SNP’s management of the census this year.
‘From the decision to decouple the timing of the census from the one conducted in England and Wales, to difficulties accessing the census online and controversy over how questions were phrased, ministers seem to have gone out of their way to make it as confusing as possible.
‘This matters because an accurate census helps to inform the delivery of public services for the next decade. We need urgent action from the Government to ensure that the data gap is closed.’
Mr Robertson told Holyrood: ‘I cannot stress enough how important it is for the Government to hear the voices of the remaining 604,000 households who are still to return before the deadline of Sunday, May 1.
‘That figure also includes many thousands of people who have begun the census online, but haven’t yet completed it, and the thousands of others who have requested a paper copy, but have not yet returned it.’