Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what will be the duties of those employed to carry out the census canvass in May 2021.

The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority. I have therefore asked the Authority to respond.

Professor Sir Ian Diamond | National Statistician

The Lord Greaves

House of Lords

London
SW1A 0PW

10 February 2021

Dear Lord Greaves

As National Statistician and Chief Executive of the UK Statistics Authority, I am responding to your Parliamentary Question asking what the duties will be of those employed to carry out the census canvass in May 2021 (HL12955).

Census 2021 will be a digital-first census and the Office for National Statistics (ONS) will be encouraging people to respond online if they can on their mobile phones, laptops, PCs or tablets, and providing a comprehensive range of support (including paper questionnaires) for those who are not able to complete the census online. The ONS expects 70 percent of households to respond without needing a reminder letter or visit from field staff. However, where it is necessary for the field staff to be involved and carry out their assigned duties, please be assured that safety is our number one concern.

For Census 2021, due to take place on the 21 March 2021, the ONS will have up to 40,000 census field staff working across England and Wales. The majority of the field force, who are ONS staff, are due to start the main follow-up work following Census day and no field staff will be knocking on doors until after that day.

An initial tranche of field staff is due to start earlier than this, undertaking tasks that do not require them to interact with members of the public nor knock on doors of households. They will be out and about from 8 March performing duties such as checking addresses of undelivered mail, understanding the local area and understanding the access to buildings etc.

Following Census day, field staff will start following up only those households who have not yet responded to the initial invitation and reminder letters. The primary role of these field officers is to give help and encouragement to those who have not yet filled in their census questionnaire online or on paper, and to direct them to the support services they need. Field staff will never enter people’s houses; they will be supplied with Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), will always be socially distanced and will work in line with all government guidance.

All field staff will have been instructed in how to follow a precise door knocking routine to maximise safety for themselves and the public. Field officers will record the status of their visits by recording outcomes on the electronic Field Work Management Tool which has been developed for this purpose. A few examples of the many possible outcomes would be: they may record if the property is derelict, there was no answer (so they left a card), there was a hard refusal to complete. Officers can also collect paper questionnaires and post them for a household if the householder has completed one but is unable to post the return (for example, if the householder is housebound and has no family/friends to post the return for them).

There are also field officers that are responsible for encouraging census returns from communal establishments (CEs), who will start this work on 23^rd February. The CEs will be sent out an information pack by post and then the CE officers will contact the managers of each of them. They will discuss with the managers of each establishment the best way to enumerate and they will request an invitation to visit in a COVID secure way, that will follow the protocols established by that establishment, to hand deliver the Census packs to a member of the CE staff, as laid out in regulations. They will always follow local and central government guidelines. There is not a need for CE officers to meet with the residents of the establishment, as the managers of the CEs will organise for the census forms to be filled in by each of the residents.

For more detailed information on ONS field staff roles, the ONS has published a Local Authority Partnership Guide[1] which includes a timeline of key activities during the Census 2021 operation (section 3), factsheets on field staff roles and responsibilities (section 7.2), recruitment allocation and dates for field staff (section 7.3).

The health and safety of census field staff and the public are of the utmost importance to the ONS. Prior to going out into the field, all field staff will be given comprehensive COVID-19 training. This will include detailed guidance on how to use the PPE provided, in addition to the other control measures the ONS has established to ensure everyone’s safety. Full details of the safety measures are available on the Census 2021 jobs website.^[2] As set out on that web page, the items of PPE issued to field staff will include, but is not limited to, face coverings, hand sanitiser and sanitising wipes.

Yours sincerely,

Professor Sir Ian Diamond

[1] https://census.gov.uk/assets/Census2021_A4_English_LocalAuthorityGuideVersionTwo_LAGD1-A.pdf

[2] https://www.censusjobs.co.uk/covid-19-update/