Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what meetings Ministers in his Department have had with the UK Statistics Authority on (a) the future of the census and (b) the 2031 census; and if he will publish the minutes of those meetings.

I have met with UK Statistics Authority / Office of National Statistics leadership regarding the future of the census and the 2031 census twice: in October 2024 and April 2025. As is longstanding practice, we do not publish minutes of such meetings.

The Office for Statistics Regulation published a report on Thursday 12 June setting out its post publication findings on the 2021 England and Wales Census, including the impact of the pandemic on the census.