User Consultation: Advisory Groups Meetings - October 2003
Summary of issues and topics covered at the joint Census Advisory Group meeting held on 23 October 2003. The groups involved- Business Advisory Group, Health Service Advisory Group, Central and Local Government Information Partnership - Census Sub-group, Academic Advisory Group and the Departmental Working Group, cover the business sector, health authorities, local government, the academic community and central government respectively.
Jon McGinty, head of Neighbourhood Statistics and Census Outputs at ONS introduced himself in the chair.
Summary of issues arising from previous round of Census Advisory Group meetings
The Chairman reported that actions from the last meeting had been dealt with either as notes in the Minutes or by email prior to the meeting.
John Hollis (Greater London Authority) introduced Sheila Ritchie from Manchester City Council as a new member of the CLIP Census sub-group.
Ian White reported that the validation work on modelled income had been completed and the National Statistician had agreed that the results could be released. It was planned that the release would be via Neighbourhood Statistics and the results would relate to 1998 wards. He was not able to confirm a release date. The Chairman agreed to find out and report back. [Secretary's note: No release date decided as at 1 December]
Jon McGinty advised that he had been charged with making contact with other nations to discuss greater dissemination for the whole UK.
The paper reported progress to date. Most of the planned output was now released. ONS reported that the Samples of Anonymised Records (SARs) were currently being checked for uniqueness. It was the first time the process had been used and it was not easy to give a timetable but it is anticipated that the checking would be finished by end December/early January, and that it was hoped to have agreement for release in March/April.
Members asked whether there was any indication when Key Statistics table KS24 would be available. Jon McGinty reported that there would be a 1-2 month impact on the timetable due to the current technical problem with SuperCROSS in counting out-migrants.
Jon McGinty went on to report that ONS was reviewing a potential risk that information about individual employers could be disclosed through the tables on workplace populations. As a result, remaining releases of Census results for England and Wales, most of which included some workplace and out-migrant tables, could not go ahead as scheduled, and the current timetable for the remaining Census output was being reviewed. However, ONS was fully aware for the need to minimise the delay to the availability of Census results, and the review would be carried out as quickly as possible. It was expected to resolve the technical-out migrant issue shortly but the workplace disclosure risk review was likely to take longer. With this in mind, Advisory Group members were asked whether, in the circumstances, they would want ONS to release other output in advance of the workplace tables becoming available.
There was general consensus that it would be preferable to release other output as and when it became available rather than to wait for workplace tables.
Area Classifications
The Local Authority level Area Classification was published on 31 October. Secretary's note: this can be found on the ONS websiteHERE.
ONS confirmed that the data used in devising the Classification was from the published Key Statistics and reported that the Area Classification for Primary Care Trusts would follow shortly and those at ward and output area levels were planned for end of 2003/beginning 2004.
Super Output Areas (SOAs)
Jon McGinty explained that the prime drivers for Neighbourhood Statistics had been the need to track changes over time and the need for consistent and comparable geography. A stable statistical geography would allow users to define their own boundaries, and SOAs would provide such a geography that would facilitate disclosure control. SOAs would provide an extra geographical dimension for many NeSS data sources.
Jon McGinty agreed that ONS still had some work to do to promote SOAs and reported that there were some activities lined up to do so. It was the National Statistician's aim to move away from the proliferation of administrative geographies, which were constantly changing, and to promote a standard statistical geography.
The lower level SOAs would have a minimum of 1,000 people and 400 households (to qualify for release of Census Standard tables). A requirement above the 5,000-10,000 population range had been identified, which would help define the upper level, 25,000 was the minimum number but the target could well be 30,000 - 40,000. Jon McGinty reported that the aim was to get as much data as was possible at each level.
NeSS update
A short PowerPoint presentation was given on the current position with the NeSS site and users were reminded that anyone using the site should ensure they were registered so that they could be added to the mailing list for the Neighbourhood Statistics newsletter: 'Access Small Areas'.
ONS emphasised that the recent revision did not undermine the 2001 Census results, which remain a rich and uniquely valuable source of information about the population of England and Wales.
Members asked if the characteristics, such as ethnicity and educational level of the people who had been missed, were known so that steps could be taken to improve coverage in 2011. ONS reported that such characteristics were not known. The Strategic Development Programme was, however, already making plans to ensure improved coverage in 2011.
It was appreciated that the revision represented only a very small proportion of the population overall, but it was noted that in Brent, for example, 23 per cent of young men had been missed and ONS was asked whether advice would be given to Local Authorities doing household projections, which was an important component in determining sub-national projections.
ONS would not be issuing formal advice or guidance to users on adjustments to census figures. ONS would however ensure that there would be appropriate consultation with ODPM.
Future meetings
Jon McGinty reported that it was now timely to update the Terms of Reference of the groups since the remit to advise on the 2001 Census had now been completed. There were a number of options for the scope of future consultation which he asked members to consider:
2011 Census matters;
the proposed new integrated population statistics system; and/or
NeSS - small area statistics system covering both social and economic statistics.
Some users favoured coverage of all these topics by the groups; others felt that the groups should consider the 2011 Census and the IPSS but not necessarily small area statistics, which was more specific than the larger population statistics system.
The Local Authorities noted that the difficulty in expanding the scope of the local authorities group was that it had to work within the terms defined by main Central and Local Information Partnership, which had set up specific sub-groups to mirror topic themes within ONS. The Census sub-group would want to focus on the 2011 Census whilst at the same time keeping abreast of other small area data developments.
Any other business
Local Authorities asked whether there would be a formal ONS response to the LGA Review of the One Number Census. It was very likely there would be, but it was pointed out that a lot of the recommendations coincided with current work programmes and the strategy identified in the report A demographic statistics service for the 21st century published in July.
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