3.The Government has decided that a Census of Population should be taken throughout the UK in 2001. A White Paper (Cm 4253) was published on 4th March 1999 setting out the Government’s proposals for the Census including the topics that should be covered.
4.Central government, local and health authorities, commercial business and the professions need reliable information on the number and characteristics of people and households if they are to conduct many of their activities effectively.
5.The Government, in particular, needs this kind of information to form policy, to plan services for specific groups of people and to distribute resources effectively to local and health authorities to enable them to direct resources to where they are needed.
6.The information must be authoritative, accurate and comparable for all parts of the country. Only a census can provide the information on a uniform basis both about the country as a whole and about individual small areas and sub-groups of the population.
Background The 2001 Census