Census ‘lies in ruins’ with many families too busy to fill it in
£6m cost of delayed deadline is ‘SNP shambles’
SCOTLAND’S shambolic census ‘lies in ruins’ as ministers confirmed many people claimed to be ‘too busy’ to complete it.
Around 316,000 families have failed to fill out the census – with those who fail to respond to a final invitation to complete it now facing being reported to prosecutors.
The final completion rate of 87.9 per cent is way below the 94 per cent target and much lower than completion rates in England and Wales, where it went ahead as planned last year.
Constitution Secretary Angus Robertson said research in the past week of the collection period found more than a third of those who failed to complete it said they were ‘too busy’. He said this ‘suggests changes in society’s attitudes to the census and completing it have had a significant part to play’.
But the research also found the public reported a lack of awareness, concerns about questions asked, lack of trust in the Scottish Government and privacy fears.
It was confirmed yesterday that the final cost of a delay to the census to improve completion rates will be around £6million. Scottish Conservacent, tive constitution spokesman Donald Cameron said: ‘Scotland’s census lies in ruins. It’s a disgrace.
‘The SNP could have run the census in sync with the rest of the UK last year. As always, they had to be different and the cost of that decision is now clear for all to see.
‘The Scottish return rate is almost 10 per cent behind the rest of the UK.
‘We’ve had delay after delay after delay and an everincreasing bill for taxpayers.
We were told a few weeks ago that Scotland’s census had solid foundations. Now it risks being worthless.
‘Angus Robertson then remarkably tried to put the blame onto the public for the response rate, despite his own government’s poor publicity campaign.
‘He has failed to take any responsibility for this failure, and preferred to play party politics rather than addressing whether an interim census will be needed prior to 2031 as a result of this SNP shambles.’
In a statement to MSPs yesterday, Mr Robertson said ten of the 32 councils achieved a return rate of above 90 per while 28 exceeded 85 per cent and all were above 80 per cent.
He said extending the deadline for returning forms by a month from May 1 came at a cost of £6million but allowed the response rate to increase by 8.7 percentage points.
Of the 316,000 households which failed to respond, around 78 per cent received a visit from Census staff.
Mr Robertson said 17 per cent of respondents who failed to complete the census said they were ‘not aware of the census’, while 14 per cent said they ‘didn’t realise they had to complete it’.
He added: ‘Anyone who has directly refused to fill in the census has now been written to and given a final opportunity to do so before National Records of Scotland begin the process of referring them for potential prosecution.’
‘Decisions regarding prosecutions remain a matter for the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service.’
National Records of Scotland said contact is being made with ‘several thousand householders’ who have indicated they will not be completing their census.
It was unable to provide details of responses to research asking the reasons for not completing the form.
‘Ever-increasing bill for taxpayers’