Census Act 1920

The Census Act 1920 (10 & 11 Geo. V c. 41) was an Act of Parliament in the United Kingdom. It became law on August 16, 1920.

It provided for taking a census for Great Britain or any subsidiary part of it, on a date fixed by Order in Council, requiring that a minimum of five years were to elapse between censuses. It remains the primary legislation for the provision of the UK census in England, Scotland, and Wales.

Full title of the Act

The long title of the Act is::"An Act to make provision for the taking from time to time of a Census for Great Britain or any area therein and for otherwise obtaining Statistical Information with respect to the Population of Great Britain"

Parts of the Act

# Power to direct taking of census.
# Duty of Registrar-General to carry out census, and provision for expenses.
# Regulations with respect to proceedings for taking census.
# Preparation of reports and abstracts.
# Preparation of statistics in respect of periods between one census and another.
# Provision with respect to local census.
# Expenses of local authorities.
# Penalties.
# Application to Scotland.
# Short title and extent.

chedule

The Schedule to the Act lists the 'Matters in respect of which particulars may be required'. They are:
# Names, sex, age.
# Occupation, profession, trade or employment.
# Nationality, birthplace, race, language.
# Place of abode and character of dwelling.
# Condition as to marriage, relation to head of family, issue born in marriage.
# Any other matters with respect to which it is desirable to obtain statistical information with a view to ascertaining the social or civil condition of the population.

Religion was added at 5A in the Schedule by the Census (Amendment) Act 2000 (c. 24) in England and Wales, and the Census (Amendment) (Scotland) Act 2000 in Scotland. In Northern Ireland the Census Act (Northern Ireland) 1969 already made explicit provision for asking about religion. The 2000 amendment also added a clause in Section 8 of the 1920 Act to make the provision of religion optional::"no person shall be liable to a penalty under subsection (1) for refusing or neglecting to state any particulars in respect of religion"

References

*"Oliver & Boyd's new Edinburgh almanac and national repository for the year 1921". p228

ee also

*Census in the United Kingdom
*Census Act (Northern Ireland) 1969 (c. 8 N.I.), similar legislation for Northern Ireland
*Census (Confidentiality) Act 1991 (c. 6), amendments to Section 8

External links

*
* [http://www.statistics.gov.uk/census2001/IntroLegislation.asp Census 2001 - Legislation and the role of Parliament] National Statistics