Census to get overhaul after last year's fiasco

Britain's census faces the biggest shake-up of its 200-year history, the Government said yesterday.

The national population survey, carried out by an army of enumerators delivering forms to every household, is likely to be scrapped and replaced by a computer survey.

A census has been carried out every ten years, apart from in 1941, since the 1801 Act of Union between England and Scotland. It is used to detect population shift and to draw up long-term planning in such areas as transport, health and education.

But the Government has responded to a call from MPs on the Treasury Select Committee who want a radical overhaul. Accepting their recom- mendation, it said the next census was "likely to be some mix of administrative records, household survey and perhaps a national count".

Among the information that could be used to compile the 2011 register are tax and benefit records, as well as details held by the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency.

The census could also draw on the General Household Survey, which provides a continuously updated picture of British society. Alternatively forms could be sent to a representative sample of homes across the country.

Following the £254m bill run up by last year's census, which covered 30 million households, the Government yesterday said it would carry out a "cost-benefit analysis of the options available" for the 2011 census.

The former Conservative minister Michael Fallon, who sits on the Treasury Select Committee, said: "This is the first indication we have of the last of its census in its traditional form. It is very welcome.

"The traditional census is very expensive and its results do not come into play for years afterwards. You don't have to spend a quarter of a billion pounds just because that is the way it has always been done."

The last census ran into controversy after the Office for National Statistics (ONS), which conducts it, faced criticism that many forms were not sent out on time. A telephone hotline set up to deal with queries was initially overwhelmed. The ONS also provoked anger in Wales by omitting Welsh from the list of nationalities on census forms.

An ONS spokesman said: "Until 2001, it was generally accepted that the census was the best way of collecting information. But times change and we have to look at how best we gather information."

In its report in March, the Treasury Select Committee complained the ONS could not produce "robust evidence" to account for the cost of the last census and said a "rigorous" case would have to be made to justify the need for another survey next decade.

The MPs said: "We consider that in evaluating the benefits of any future census, all alternatives should be considered, including doing without a census altogether and reverting to a simple headcount."

Preliminary results of last year's census are expected to be published in August, with the full findings released in the first six months of 2003.

The delay, which will mean councils' spending assessments early next year will be based on information that is 12 years out of date, was also criticised by the MPs.

The Government said: "Opportunities from continued technological advance continue to present themselves, which may result in a more rapid timetable in 2011."