'Field Force' Sign Up For The 2001 Census

12th February 2001

The 523 part-time team leaders who will be responsible for managing teams of Enumerators local level during Scotland's Census on 29 April, will take up their new roles on Monday 19 February. Already they have signed a strict code of confidentiality - essential to ensure that no information collected during the Census about individuals can be revealed by any member of the Census team. The Census Team Leaders will be given intensive briefing and training sessions, starting with their formal appointment next Monday.

Between them the team leaders will be responsible for 7,000 Enumerators, and form the Census field force, who will take three weeks in April to deliver the 2001 Census forms to Scotland's 2.5 million households. The briefings and training are being organised and carried out at local level by the 175 Census District Managers who began their work at the end of November last year.

"Our force on the ground is beginning to come together," said John Randall, Registrar General for Scotland, who is responsible for running the Census in Scotland. "At the beginning of September we appointed 22 Census Area Managers who between them cover the whole of Scotland," said Mr Randall. "Last November the Area Managers appointed 175 District Managers who are now about to appoint the 523 Team Leaders. Next month the Enumerators, our foot soldiers if you like, will take up post and begin their very important work. They will be the human face of the Census, because they will visit every single household in the country to deliver the Census forms."

Census Day is Sunday 29 April when every household in the country must answer the 42 questions on the form. "The Team Leaders will be responsible for ensuring that no one is missed by their teams of Enumerators, and that all the forms are returned. Assistance will be available to anyone who needs it to fill in the form. If forms are not posted back for any reason, it will be the Team Leaders' job to ensure that their Enumerators chase them up," added Mr Randall.

Completed forms will be scanned into computers and the data used to compile vital statistics, essential to planning public services for the future. The building of new hospitals, schools and roads, for example, will be influenced by the Census results - as will the provision of social services - during the years ahead.

The information on individual returns will remain secret for the next 100 years. Then it will be made available in Edinburgh's New Register House where it will be of value to researchers, academics and folk tracing their family histories.

"I would emphasise that the Census is impartial and non-political," said Mr Randall, "and it is vital that everyone is included in the Census returns. Even babies born on Census Day, 29 April, should be counted in."

Notes To Editors

1. You can obtain a local perspective on this event by contacting your Census Area Manager .

2. A Census has been held in the UK every 10 years since 1801 - except in 1941. The office of Registrar General for Scotland was created in 1855 and the office-holder has been responsible for conducting the Census in Scotland ever since. This is the first Census to be held under a Scottish Parliament. The Parliament, along with local authorities and other bodies, will use the data for planning Scotland's future. The Registrar General for Scotland expects the first set of data to be available in the autumn of 2003.