Census (Amendment) Act 2000

The Census (Amendment) Act 2000 (2000 c. 24) and Census (Amendment) (Scotland) Act 2000 (2000 asp 3) are acts of the Parliaments of the United Kingdom and Scotland, respectively. They introduced a question on the religion of respondents to the censuses of Great Britain.

Census (Amendment) Act 2000
Act of Parliament
Long titleAn Act to amend the Census Act 1920 to enable particulars to be required in respect of religion.
Citation2000 c. 24
Introduced byLord Weatherill
Jonathan Sayeed[1]
Territorial extentEngland and Wales
Dates
Royal assent28 July 2000[2]
Other legislation
AmendsCensus Act 1920
Relates toCensus Act (Northern Ireland) 1969
Status: Current legislation
Text of statute as originally enacted
Revised text of statute as amended
Census (Amendment) (Scotland) Act 2000
Act of the Scottish Parliament
Long titleAn Act of the Scottish Parliament to amend the Census Act 1920 to enable particulars about religion to be gathered.
Citation2000 asp 3
Introduced byJim Wallace[3]
Territorial extent Scotland
Dates
Royal assent10 April 2000[4]
Other legislation
AmendsCensus Act 1920
Relates toCensus Act (Northern Ireland) 1969
Status: Current legislation
History of passage through Parliament
Text of statute as originally enacted
Revised text of statute as amended

Motivation

The inclusion of a question on religion was recommended in a white paper of March 1999.[2] Parliament has indicated that inclusion of a question on religion was to provide useful demographics information for six key areas, namely "discrimination and racial disadvantage, social exclusion, health and community care planning, religious education in schools, regeneration of the inner cities, and helping voluntary sector religious groups".[1]

Legislation

England and Wales

The Parliament of the United Kingdom enacted the Census (Amendment) Act 2000 in order to provide for the asking of a question on religion in the census of England and Wales. Amendments were made to the original Bill by the House of Lords so that no person was to be subject to a penalty for refusing or neglecting to provide details in response to such a question.[5]

Scotland

The Scottish Executive brought forward similar legislation, the Census (Amendment) (Scotland) Act 2000. The Bill was originally introduced by Jim Wallace and passed through the Parliament, receiving Royal Assent on 10 April 2000.[4] which introduced similar provisions for the inclusion of a question on religion in the census of Scotland. The Scottish Act also provided that a person would not be penalised for failing or refusing to declare a religion on the census.[6]

Northern Ireland

A similar amendment to census legislation was not required in Northern Ireland, as the Census Act (Northern Ireland) 1969 already included provisions for the taking of particulars of religion.[5] All censuses in Ireland have included a question on religion since 1861.[7]

See also

References
  1. "2000 Census Act". parliament.uk. Parliament of the United Kingdom. Retrieved 16 October 2016.
  2. "The Census (Amendment) Act 2000". ons.gov.uk. Office for National Statistics. Retrieved 16 October 2016.
  3. "Census (Amendment) (Scotland) Bill [AS INTRODUCED]" (PDF). parliament.scot. The Scottish Parliament. Retrieved 16 October 2016.
  4. "Session 1 Bills". parliament.scot. The Scottish Parliament. Retrieved 16 October 2016.
  5. "2001 CENSUS ADVISORY GROUP PAPER (00)15: LEGISLATION UPDATE" (PDF). ons.gov.uk. Office for National Statistics. Retrieved 16 October 2016.
  6. Lyall, Francic (2016). Church and State in Scotland: Developing Law. Routledge. p. 217. ISBN 9781409450641.
  7. "Census 2001: Frequently Asked Questions" (PDF). nisra.gov.uk. Northern Ireland Statistics & Research Agency. p. 6. Retrieved 16 October 2016.
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