The deadline for submitting Scottish census declarations has been extended by one month after a record number of hosts failed to complete their forms or delayed their submission.
Angus Robertson, Scotland’s constitutional secretary, has faced accusations from the opposition that he led a “catastrophic” process after telling the ICJ on Thursday that almost a quarter of hosts had not yet filed declarations, with an initial deadline of three days.
As a result, National Records of Scotland, the official data agency, extended the deadline of Sunday, May 1, by four weeks to give households more time to complete the return.
Robertson said approximately 600,000 homes, 23% of the total, had not submitted theirs by Thursday morning, although numerous notices and reminders had been sent warning that they would face £ 1,000 fines if they did not. Ministers also offered the NRS almost £ 10 million more to cover their additional costs.
For the first time, the agency gave priority to returning the online census, as was the case in the rest of the UK last year, with 10% of respondents receiving paper copies on request, Robertson said. Approximately 68,000 people left online declarations incomplete and a similar number failed to submit their paper forms.
Apparently disappointed by the high abstention rate, Robertson showed the MSP a thick pile of various letters and cards that some homes had received, which he counted as he spoke. He said there were also nearly 1 million home visits by census officials.
“There are potentially serious consequences for not completing the census,” he said. “[There] it was a lot of public information. The question is why people have not responded in the way one can hope and expect to do.
Speaking on behalf of the Scottish Conservatives, Donald Cameron said that this low absorption was “nothing short of catastrophic”. This will slow down improvements in public services and significantly increase the cost of the census, which has already risen by £ 30 million.
He said the Scottish government had been prompted by the Tories to conduct a population census in Scotland at the same time as the rest of the United Kingdom, where it was conducted a year ago. That would mean that Scotland would benefit from the publicity in the UK that it is taking place, Cameron said. Scottish ministers said the Covid crisis meant a delay; Robertson told Cameron that his government’s position remained.
On Monday, the NRS revealed that 700,000 homes have not yet filed returns, and published figures show that the return rate is often the lowest in Scotland’s poorest areas. It says Glasgow, the city with the highest digital exclusion rate in Scotland, has a response rate of 65% and Inverclyde, which also has high poverty rates, has 70%. Wealthier areas such as Aberdeenshire and East Renfrewshire are over 80%.
The census in England had a 97% return last year, although the deadline was postponed for some institutional settings. Data from the National Bureau of Statistics show that the highest rates of return on digital forms in England are from the poorest and most ethnically diverse municipalities: Tower Hamlets and Newham in London have 97% online responses.
The NRS confirmed that for the 2011 census, which was made on paper and did not include an extension, the rate of return was 94%, and in 2001 it was 96%. In 2011, only three people were accused of failing to file a declaration.
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