A question on languages spoken will be included in
the Population Census 2011.
2011 Output Consultation: Main Statistical
Outputs
This consultation is an important part of the preparation
for the 2011 Census in England and Wales. It allows users of census
data to help shape the main statistical outputs for the 2011
Census. The consultation is open to everyone, including members of
the public. Government departments, unitary, county and district
councils, metropolitan boroughs and other large census user
organisations should discuss their requirements internally before
making a joint submission.
The requirements submitted during the consultation will be
used to produce a second set of specifications for further
consultation in Autumn 2010. Following this, an agreed set of
specifications for the main outputs from the 2011 Census will be
issued in Winter 2010.
Click to get
more details of the consultation.
2011 Census Output Geography Consultation
This consultation is being run to gather views and submissions
on the three outstanding aspects of 2011 Census Output Geography
policy. These are:
- A new geography for improved reporting of business statistics
and statistics relating to the workplace
- An upper layer of Super Output Areas (USOAs)
- A request for exceptional instances of current OAs and SOAs, as
designed for 2001, that do not fit present criteria for statistical
zones.
Click to get
more details of the consultation.
Draft Census Order
The Draft Census Order, which will allow the next census to take
place
in England and Wales in 2011, was laid before Parliament on 21
October 2009 by
Cabinet Office Minister Angela E Smith.
This is the latest milestone in planning the census, which will
take place
on 27 March 2011.
The Government published the UK Statistics Authority’s proposals
for
the 2011 Census in a
White Paper in December 2008.
Click to access the
final recommended questions on languages and the development of
the language questions.
The 2009 Census Rehearsal
The 2009 Census Rehearsal with around 135,000 selected
households took place on 11 October 2009 in Lancaster, the London
Borough of Newham, and Ynys Môn – Isle of Anglesey in North Wales.
There will not be major changes to the questionnaire content
after the rehearsal.
Questions related to languages include:
Q18: What is your main language?
Q19: How well can you speak English?
Read the full rehearsal questionnaire
Further
information: the 2011 Census
The Office for National
Statistics (ONS) held a consultation in summer 2005 to look at the
content of the Census in 2011. Languages featured strongly in the
consultation and the report stated there was a clear user
requirement for information on language, for service provision and
resource allocation purposes.
However, ONS stressed that
further work was required before a final decision could be made
whether to include a language question in the 2011 Census. Their
concerns on language collection included space restrictions as well
as respondent burden, operational concerns and public
acceptability.
Read the 2005 consultation reports.
Read CILT's
response to the initial consultation.
A further consultation took
place in early 2007 to identify particular user needs for
ethnicity, national identity, language and religion information.
The majority of respondents expressed a need for language
information from the 2011 Census, particularly within local and
regional government.
Read the 2007 consultation reports
The ONS recognises the
demand for information on the linguistic diversity of the UK. In
April 2008 it was announced that a language question will
be included following confirmation that an extended 4 page person
questionnaire will be funded for the Census in 2011.
Click here to access the 2011 Census
webpage for further information.