06-02-2022, 05:04 AM
Lessons will be learned from census row
Nicola Sturgeon has insisted that Scotland's census will produce credible data despite a lower number of people filling it out than had been targeted.
SLOT ONLINE development is designed to support all smartphones, maintaining the same themes, rules, privileges.
The survey was extended by a month to attract extra submissions, but as of Wednesday the response rate was 86.9% - far below the original goal of 94%.
It has led to calls from some experts for an inquiry into what went wrong.
Ms Sturgeon said lessons would be learned, but added that "a high-quality census data set" would be produced.
Opposition parties said there should be "soul-searching" in government over the "shambolic" process.
The census is meant to take place every 10 years, and produces data used by the government and other agencies to plan public services.
This was Scotland's first principally digital census, with more than two million households filling it in online and 250,000 returning a paper copy.
Scotland's census was delayed by a year in 2021 due to the Covid-19 pandemic - despite the survey going ahead as planned in England and Wales, with a response rate of 97%.
The population survey was supposed to be complete by the beginning of May, but with return rates sitting at 77% ministers opted to extend it by a month.
This added £10m to the cost of the exercise, bringing it to a total of £148m.
At Holyrood, the first minister was asked if the data collected would be credible
Nicola Sturgeon has insisted that Scotland's census will produce credible data despite a lower number of people filling it out than had been targeted.
SLOT ONLINE development is designed to support all smartphones, maintaining the same themes, rules, privileges.
The survey was extended by a month to attract extra submissions, but as of Wednesday the response rate was 86.9% - far below the original goal of 94%.
It has led to calls from some experts for an inquiry into what went wrong.
Ms Sturgeon said lessons would be learned, but added that "a high-quality census data set" would be produced.
Opposition parties said there should be "soul-searching" in government over the "shambolic" process.
The census is meant to take place every 10 years, and produces data used by the government and other agencies to plan public services.
This was Scotland's first principally digital census, with more than two million households filling it in online and 250,000 returning a paper copy.
Scotland's census was delayed by a year in 2021 due to the Covid-19 pandemic - despite the survey going ahead as planned in England and Wales, with a response rate of 97%.
The population survey was supposed to be complete by the beginning of May, but with return rates sitting at 77% ministers opted to extend it by a month.
This added £10m to the cost of the exercise, bringing it to a total of £148m.
At Holyrood, the first minister was asked if the data collected would be credible