Release of information informing the ONC QA process Will the comparator data used in the ONC QA process be released?
We have released further information on the QA process undertaken to give users further confidence in the ONC results. This includes a discussion of contingency measures that were used and an indication of the frequency that they were applied. This has been published on the National Statistics Website. Permission to release the comparator datasets used in the ONC QA has now been received and these are also available.
Enumeration of Households How can you be sure that the census has enumerated all of the households in an area?
ONS was aware of the barriers to enumeration and fieldwork procedures were designed to maximise coverage. However it was recognised that a perfect enumeration was not possible and so extensive research on estimating and adjusting for undercount was undertaken. This research resulted in the One Number Census methodology. Some Local Authorities have suggested that enumeration had failed to count households and for these areas the ONC methodology had also made high adjustments for under-enumeration. This demonstrates that the methodology had successfully identified enumeration problems resulting from these barriers.
Enumeration of Special Groups (Students, Prisoners, Home and Foreign Armed Forces How can you be sure that groups such as students, prisoners and armed forces have been enumerated?
Census estimates were compared against administrative sources including HESA (student numbers) data, Home Office data on prisoners, Defence Analytic Services Agency (DASA) data (home armed forces) and USAFE (US forces) data. An adjustment would have been made if there was evidence to suggest an enumeration problem of these special groups. This information will be published in the week commencing 21st April as part of the QA comparator data mentioned in section 4.
Use of 2001 Census in Local Government Finance Settlement If the numbers for an area seem to have been underestimated in 1991, will the local authority be compensated?
Population estimates for 1992-2000 were the best that were available, on a nationally consistent basis, at the time they were made. The method used for calculating population between censuses is an accepted demographic method that is widely used. As normally happens after a Census ONS will analyse the implications of the census results for the accuracy of the MYEs, in order to learn lessons about the method and data sources used to produce the MYEs and to indicate where to target efforts to make improvements in the future. A report on the lessons learned for the MYEs was published on 13 February 2003.
Population has a large weight in the Finance Settlement calculations so it is important that the best population estimates are used by ODPM. ONS estimates have been unreliable in the past - will the government to take steps to improve the quality of the population estimates used in the Local Government Finance Settlement?
The Census population estimates are the best estimates for 2001. Previous population estimates (the MYEs) were the best possible at the time they were made. The method used for calculating population between censuses is an accepted and widely employed demographic method. As normally happens after a Census ONS will analyse the implications of the census results for the accuracy of the MYEs, in order to learn lessons about the method and data sources used to produce the MYEs and to indicate where to target efforts to make improvements in the future. A report on the lessons learned for the MYEs was published on 13 February 2003.
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