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To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what action his Department will take in response to the recent report by the Statistics Commission on the accuracy of the 2001 census for the Westminster City Council area; if he will ask the Statistics Commission to investigate the accuracy of the 2001...

Asked by

Gordon Marsden (Labour)

Answering body

Treasury

Type

Written questions

Status

Answered

Tabled on

4 November 2003

For answer on

11 November 2003

Answered on

11 November 2003

Mr. Gordon Marsden: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) what action his Department will take in response to the recent report by the Statistics Commission on the accuracy of the 2001 census for the Westminster city council area; [136989] (2) if he will ask the Statistics Commission to investigate the accuracy of the 2001 census in Blackpool; [136990] (3) what assessment his Department has made of the implications for the reliability of the census population statistics for Blackpool of the recent Statistics Commission report on the accuracy of the 2001 census for Westminster. [136991] John Healey: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician, who has been asked to reply. Letter from Len Cook to Mr. Gordon Marsden, dated 11 November 2003: As National Statistician and Registrar General for England and Wales I have been asked to reply to your recent questions asking: what action will be taken in response to the recent report by the Statistics Commission on the accuracy of the 2001 census for the Westminster City Council area (136989), whether the Statistics Commission will be asked to investigate the accuracy of the 2001 census count in Blackpool (136990) and what assessment has been made of the implications for the reliability of the census population statistics for Blackpool of the recent Statistics Commission report on the accuracy of the 2001 census for Westminster. (136991) It is for the Office for National Statistics (ONS) to take forward the recommendations from the report by the Statistics Commission on the accuracy of the 2002 census for Westminster. ONS has welcomed this report and is considering what action is required. The Statistics Commission has made several recommendations about how ONS should proceed with Westminster, and recognised that this work was already underway. A report on the Westminster and Manchester exercise is planned for Spring 2004. The Statistics Commission report on the Census in Westminster concluded that no alternative approach would have produced more reliable results overall and that it seems likely that the 2001 Census was significantly better than any of its recent predecessors. The Statistics Commission's report does make a number of recommendations for further work that should be carried out by ONS but the Commission made no proposals about which ONS had not already published our intention to act or to carry out further research. Although I recognise that there was a relatively large fall in the 2001 Census-based population estimate for Blackpool compared to previous estimates, I am not aware of any particular cause for concern about the latest published population estimates for Blackpool. If you have some work that challenges this judgement, I would most certainly respond to it. The Statistics Commission is an independent body and it is not my role to attempt to influence their work programme. On 4 November, I published a revised population estimate for Manchester that took account of the results of the address matching exercise. This was accompanied by a document outlining the process that ONS intend to adopt to periodically validate the annual population estimates of local authorities. I will arrange for this document to be sent to you, along with two recent ONS reports (on population statistics and our approach to the next Census) that you may find of value.

Date

11 November 2003

Reference

413 c168-9W; 136989;136990;136991

House

House of Commons

McIntosh of Haringey, Lord

In which local authorities the 2001 census figure for pensioners exceeds the corresponding figure from pensions data by more than 10 per cent as referred to in paragraph 44 of the 9th Report of the HoC Committee on the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister. (HC 492-1). [HL 4529]. -...

Asked by

Lord Oakeshott of Seagrove Bay (Liberal Democrat)

Answering body

Office for National Statistics

Type

Written questions

Status

Answered

Date

6 October 2003

Reference

HL 4529; 653 c38-9WA

House

House of Lords

Treasury;Office for National Statistics

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the statistical reliability of the calculation of average wage levels using the (a) New Earnings survey and (b) Labour Force survey. - Inc text of letter from Len Cook of the Office for National Statistics.

Asked by

Michael John Foster (Labour)

Answering body

Treasury

Type

Written questions

Status

Answered

Tabled on

25 June 2003

For answer on

3 July 2003

Answered on

3 July 2003

Mr. Michael Foster: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what assessment he has made of the statistical reliability of the calculation of average wage levels using the (a) New Earnings survey and (b) Labour Force survey. [122518] John Healey: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician. I have asked him to reply. Letter from Len Cook to Mr. Michael Foster, dated 2 July 2003: As National Statistician, I have been asked to reply to your recent question on the statistical reliability of average earnings data from the New Earnings Survey and the Labour Force Survey. (122518) Earnings data from the New Earnings Survey (NES) and from the Labour Force Survey (LFS) are valuable in different circumstances. The NES data are available annually and are based on a larger sample than those from the LFS. The LFS data are available quarterly and for a wider range of population sub- groups than from the NES. An article describing the background and uses of ONS average earnings data was published in the February 2003 edition of "Labour Market Trends", a copy of which can be found in the Library. Sampling errors have been calculated for both NES and LFS estimates and are available from the National Statistics website (www.statistics.gov.uk). Given the smaller sample size of the LFS, the sampling errors tend to be larger than the equivalent NES sampling errors. Following an extensive quality review of the NES last year the survey is currently undergoing a significant redevelopment to further improve the quality of the estimates. The action plan for implementing the results of this review are also on the National Statistics website (www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/nugget.asp?id=280). This will reduce known biases in the existing survey which arise principally from the fact that the sample only includes employees who are on Pay As You Earn tax schemes, but also because of differential response rates by size of business and region.

Date

3 July 2003

Reference

122518; 408 c368W

House

House of Commons

McIntosh of Haringey, Lord

Why the figures for greenhouse gas emissions published by the Office for National Statistics are estimated on a basis which differs from that used to monitor progress against the Kyoto protocol target for the reduction of greenhouse gases; and whether they will now publish the latest figures for such emissions...

Asked by

Lord Jenkin of Roding (Conservative)

Answering body

Office for National Statistics

Type

Written questions

Status

Answered

Date

4 June 2003

Reference

648 c176-7WA; HL 3039

House

House of Lords

Deposited Paper Dep 03/953

Deposited by

Office for National Statistics

Type

Deposited papers

Date

7 April 2003

Reference

Dep 03/953

House

House of Commons

Treasury;Office for National Statistics

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment he has made of the accuracy of the (a) 1981, (b) 1991 and (c) 2001 censuses. - Includes text of letter from Len Cook of the Office for National Statistics.

Asked by

Andrew Turner (Conservative)

Answering body

Treasury

Type

Written questions

Status

Answered

Tabled on

20 March 2003

For answer on

25 March 2003

Answered on

25 March 2003

Mr. Andrew Turner: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what assessment he has made of the accuracy of the (a) 1981, (b) 1991 and (c) 2001 censuses. [104896] Ruth Kelly: I have been asked to reply. The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician. I have asked him to reply. Letter from Len Cook to Mr. Andrew Turner, dated 25 March 2003: As National Statistician and Registrar General for England and Wales I have been asked to reply to your recent question on what assessment has been made of the accuracy of the (a) 1981, (b) 1991 and (c) 2001 Censuses. A traditional component of every census is to undertake an assessment of the accuracy of the results. In previous censuses, particularly those in 1981 and 1991, part of this process was to undertake post-enumeration surveys to measure the extent of coverage and question response that had been achieved. The detailed results of these assessments were published in a number of reports, and were summarised in the respective General Reports for these censuses, which were laid before Parliament under the provisions of section 4(1) of the Census Act. For the 2001 Census, the results have been subjected to a rigorous quality assurance process that followed an agreed strategy, which had been the subject of wide consultation with census users. Details of the procedures followed are set out in detail on the ONS website at www.statistics.gov.uk, and will also form the basis of a report to Parliament in due course. The usually resident population of each local authority by age and sex was considered in a consistent and detailed manner, involving comparison against diagnostic ranges derived from rolled- forward population estimates and aggregated data from administrative sources. We have assessed the consistency of each Local Authority's results with the information used for these comparisons. As well, an assessment of the quality of the diagnostic information itself is available. A series of evaluation reports on all aspects of the Census will be published this year.

Date

25 March 2003

Reference

104896; 402 c148-9W

House

House of Commons

Treasury;Office for National Statistics

To ask the Deputy Prime Minister, what margin of error is officially regarded as acceptable for the 2001 census in (a) inner city areas and (b) rural areas; and if he will make a statement. - Includes figures and text of letter from Len Cook of the Office for National...

Asked by

Lord Pickles (Conservative)

Answering body

Treasury

Type

Written questions

Status

Answered

Tabled on

16 January 2003

For answer on

23 January 2003

Answered on

23 January 2003

Mr. Pickles: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what margin of error is officially regarded as acceptable for the 2001 census in (a) inner city areas and (b) rural areas; and if he will make a statement. [92496] Ruth Kelly: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician. I have asked him to reply. Letter from L. Cook to Mr. E. Pickles, dated 23 January 2003: As National Statistician and Registrar General for England and Wales I have been asked to reply to your recent question to the Chancellor of the Exchequer asking what margin of error is officially regarded as acceptable for the 2001 Census in (a) inner city areas and (b) rural areas. (92496) I published the margins of error, also known as confidence intervals, when the first results from the 2001 Census were released on 30 September 2002 for England and Wales (and inner city and rural areas.) For England and Wales as a whole, the 95 per cent confidence interval (the range within which the true population would fall for 95 per cent of the times the sample was repeated) was plus or minus 0.2 per cent or 104,000 people. For local authority areas the percentage margins of error are larger, ranging from 6.1 per cent in Luton to 0.6 per cent in Dudley, East Dorset and Redcar and Cleveland. All Census population estimates have been subject to rigorous quality assurance which followed an agreed strategy which had been the subject of wide consultation with census users. The population of each local authority by age and sex was considered in a consistent and detailed manner--this involved comparison against diagnostic ranges derived from rolled-forward population estimates and aggregated administrative sources (such as Birth Registration and Pensions data). The quality assurance process means that the census figures are the best estimates we can provide for the population and they are all within acceptable confidence intervals. Of importance also to confidence in census results is that we can explain changes and unusual results. There is insufficient cohesion between the measures of the various contributors to intercensal change in the United Kingdom. This is not acceptable to many users. We are reviewing at present our methods of measuring external migration, and I have initiated a review to identify what we can do to estimate more effectively the population between censuses in areas of large change from sources we cannot measure well.

Date

23 January 2003

Reference

92496; 398 c426-7W;398 c424-5W

House

House of Commons

Deposited Paper Dep 03/143

Deposited by

Office for National Statistics

Type

Deposited papers

Date

13 January 2003

Reference

Dep 03/143

House

House of Commons

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