How the SNP botched Scotland’s census

Scotland’s first census results have finally been released: just 444 days after England managed to publish theirs. The once-a-decade count of the population was disastrous at worst and botched at best. As the first deadline for returning the census loomed last April, some 700,000 households – a quarter of the country – were threatened with £1,000 fines for not completing it. It had taken over a month to reach a 74 per cent response rate. Eleven years ago it took just ten days. Now that the results are in, the final response rate was 89 per cent: well short of the official target of 94 and the 97 per cent achieved in England and Wales.

When the first deadline was extended, the SNP did not apologise. Instead they blamed the media and ‘anxiety’ caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the cost-of-living crisis and Covid. They are yet to explain why none of this put 97 per cent of English households off.