Agenda item

Kevin Gordon, Assistant Director, Transformational Change, outlined a report to update the Committee on the current Census project and  recent developments with the Office of National Statistics (ONS), following a number of previous concerns raised by Members.

The Committee was advised that a meeting had taken place on the 16^th December, attended by  Glen Watson, ONS, Garnett Compton, Ruth Bagley and Kevin Gordon, Slough Borough Council.  The Assistant Director discussed a number of assurances that were given by the ONS as detailed in the report.

It was noted that the ‘Census Coverage Survey’ (CCS) would help ONS to assess and adjust for those households and people who did not complete their census questionnaire. This together with the subsequent coverage adjustment process was crucial to ensuring that the census population estimate was a robust measure of Slough’s population.  An extensive quality assurance process would follow to compare the emerging census population estimates with comparator sources.

The Committee was advised that an extensive marketing and publicity campaign was underway and the the publicity campaign would commence on  4^th March until 5^th April when questionnaires would start to arrive on door mats.  It was noted that the creation of at least 100 Completion Centres would be used to provide help and assistance to people with literacy needs, those with English as a second language and disabled people.  It was clear that the support of Councillors was vital to ensure a successful Census and the ways in which Members could participate were discussed.

 A number of comments /questions were raised by Members in the ensuing debate, including the following (responses shown in italics):

• A Member advised that in his Ward, he was aware of a number of residents who were not on the Electoral Roll.

A number of Slough’s residents were not entitled to vote and it was helpful to provide the ONS with any supporting anecdotal evidence.

• A Member suggested that it would be helpful to launch an advertising campaign to show how much money would be gained for every person who completed the Census Form.

The Council would be advised which collector area had the lowest return rate but no information would be provided for the other areas.  It was felt that it was important to have information for all of the five areas and this would be discussed further.

Resolved- That the report be noted and that an update report be considered  by the Panel at its meeting on 31^st March, 2011.