Delayed Scottish census £21.6m over budget

Scotland's delayed census is expected to cost £21.6m more than originally planned.

National Records of Scotland (NRS), said it was making good progress but challenges remained in delivering the census a year late.

The Scottish census was put back for a year due to the pandemic, despite the audit continuing as planned in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

It will now take place in March 2022.

NRS is the public body responsible for planning and running the census in Scotland.

It has now said that careful management is needed to ensure its successful delivery.

The survey of the entire population normally takes place every 10 years in the second year of the decade. The last census happened in 2011.

Information gathered provides government and councils with information on Scottish households which helps decisions to be made on services.

Overall costs of the 2021/22 census have increased by 18%, £21.6m more than the pre-pandemic estimate of £117m.

In the latest audit of NRS, published by Audit Scotland, the body which oversees the spending of public money, it emerged that problems with the 2021 census were discovered in 2018.

At the time steps were taken to improve its management.

However, delays in procuring key components meant that NRS was unable to carry out a full census rehearsal in autumn 2019 as planned.

It developed a recovery plan which included reducing the scope of the census rehearsal which was then carried out successfully.

The Scottish government has provided funding to cover the increase in costs.

The census is one of the Scottish government's biggest current ICT projects.

Stephen Boyle, Auditor General for Scotland, said: "The Covid-19 pandemic significantly impacted NRS's plans for running Scotland's census, resulting in ministers' decision to delay by a year.

"The census programme began to face challenges in 2018. NRS took steps to strengthen the programme and is now in a better position to deliver the census successfully in March 2022.

"It is crucial that NRS continues to monitor and manage ongoing risks to deliver the census, which is a key source of information to help the public sector plan services and funding."

Responding to the Audit Scotland report, Paul Lowe, the registrar general and chief executive of NRS, said: "NRS could not have compensated for a significant reduction in response rates due to the pandemic, or readily re-run the census if that occurred.

"In 2020 these risks prompted NRS to recommend to Scottish ministers to delay the Census for a year, this was agreed. Additional costs were incurred as a result of the delay and it is right that the public are made aware of the full impact of the pandemic.

"The report confirms that NRS is taking appropriate action to manage the challenges associated with a programme of this scale and complexity and that we are in a strong position to deliver a successful census next year."