Census postal test

Census postal test asks East Renfrewshire and Midlothian householders for seal of approval

Midlothian and East Renfrewshire householders are asked to help finalise the arrangements for returning questionnaires for Scotland’s next census.

Scotland’s Census organiser, the General Register Office for Scotland (GROS), has written to 10,000 households (5,000 addresses in each area). GROS asks people to return a sample questionnaire in a pre-paid envelope provided in order to test its internal procedures for receiving and processing questionnaires.

Last year, in a rehearsal for the 2011 Census, one third of completed questionnaires were inserted wrongly in the return envelopes. They had to be sorted by hand, which would be much more expensive in a full-scale census. To prevent the same thing happening in 2011, GROS has changed the return envelope design and is testing two different versions to evaluate which works better.

The size of the test is less than half a per cent of the more than 2.5 million questionnaires, a combination of postal and online, that GROS will process for the country-wide census in 2011.

Registrar General Duncan Macniven said:

“This is a test to make sure that our instructions for posting back completed census questionnaires are easy for people to understand. That will help ensure that the questionnaires can be sorted automatically when they reach us, which is a lot cheaper than sorting by hand. Because it is a test of the envelope instructions, we do not need people to fill in the questionnaires. We just ask that they return the sample questionnaire in the envelope provided. Everyone will have the opportunity to take part in the full census next year.

“By taking part in the test, people in Midlothian and East Renfrewshire will help us to ensure the arrangements to return the census by post are suitable for the Scotland-wide census next year and we are very grateful for their help.”

GROS chose Midlothian and East Renfrewshire for the test as they have similar population sizes and have not been involved in any other testing for the 2011 Census.

Scotland’s householders will, in 2011, also have the option to complete their census online, in English or Gaelic.

The census collects information every 10 years about the characteristics of people and households in the country. Its statistics are used by central and local government, health authorities and many other organisations to plan and provide future services for everyone.