The deadline for submitting Scottish census returns has been extended by a month after a record number of householders failed to complete their forms or delayed sending them in.
Angus Robertson, the Scottish constitution secretary, faced opposition accusations he had presided over a “disastrous” process after he told MSPs on Thursday nearly a quarter of householders had not yet submitted returns, with the original deadline in three days.
As a result, National Records of Scotland, the official data agency, had extended the deadline from Sunday 1 May by four weeks to give householders more time to complete returns.
Robertson said roughly 600,000 homes, 23% of the total, had not filed theirs as of Thursday morning, despite being sent multiple notices and reminders warning they faced £1,000 fines for failing to do so. Ministers had also offered NRS nearly £10m more to cover their extra costs.
For the first time, the agency prioritised online census returns, as was the case in the rest of the UK last year, with 10% of respondents getting paper copies on request, Robertson said. Roughly 68,000 people had left online returns incomplete and a similar number had failed to send in their paper forms.
Clearly frustrated at the high rates of abstention, Robertson showed MSPs a thick sheaf of different letters and cards some homes had been getting, which he counted out as he spoke. He said there had also been nearly 1m home visits by census staff.
“There are potentially serious consequences for not completing a census,” he said. “[There] has been a lot of public information. The question is why people have not responded in the way one might have hoped and expected they would do so.”
Donald Cameron, speaking for the Scottish Conservatives, said this low take-up “has been nothing short of disastrous”. It would set back improvements to public services, and greatly increase census costs, which had already grown by £30m.
He said the Scottish government had been urged by the Tories to hold Scotland’s census at the same time as in the rest of the UK, where it was conducted a year ago. That would have meant Scotland would have benefited from UK-wide publicity that it was taking place, Cameron said. Scottish ministers said the Covid crisis meant a delay was necessary; Robertson told Cameron that remained his government’s position.
On Monday NRS revealed that 700,000 homes were yet to submit returns, and published data showing return rates were often at their lowest in Scotland’s poorest council areas. It said Glasgow, a city that has Scotland’s highest rate of digital exclusion, had a response rate of 65% and Inverclyde, which also has high poverty rates, was 70%. Wealthier areas such as Aberdeenshire and East Renfrewshire were above 80%.
England’s census had a 97% return rate last year, although the deadline was pushed back for some institution settings. Office for National Statistics data showed England’s highest rates of return for digital forms were from its poorest and most ethnically diverse council areas: Tower Hamlets and Newham in London both had a 97% online reply rate.
NRS confirmed that for the 2011 census, which was done on paper and did not involve any deadline extensions, the return rate was 94% and in 2001 was 96%. In 2011, only three people were charged for failing to submit a return.
