POLL: Harlow MP calls for costly Census to be scrapped

HARLOW MP Robert Halfon has questioned the need for a national Census, arguing that the costly questionnaire is a waste of taxpayers’ money.

The Conservative backbencher was among a group of MPs who grilled the UK Statistics Authority on the pros and cons of the Census during a Commons Public Administration Select Committee last week.

Speaking after the meeting, Mr Halfon described the compulsory questionnaire – last completed by UK households earlier this year - as “authoritarian”.

“It is somewhat authoritarian to compel every householder in the UK to fill it out, to make them divulge their personal details and to threaten us with fines - or even imprisonment - if we don’t comply,” he said.

“Moreover it is wrong to make veiled threats - as certain adverts did - that if the census is not filled out areas of the country might not get their public spending allocation. This is patently not the case.”

He added that the money spent on collecting the data – estimated to have been around £500m this year – could have been better spent on providing "vital services".

“The cost of the Census to the taxpayer is huge - money that could be otherwise spent on vital services,” he said.

“The Coalition Government has said this census will most probably be the last.  If that is the case, why was it necessary to have a census this time around?

“I filled in my Census because I have to obey the law but I felt uncomfortable about divulging so many details to the machinery of the state; I suspect many others did as well. “