You asked
I have spent a good portion of the last six months attempting to find the number of wheelchair users in my local unitary area. Though I'm now close to a semi-reliable figure, a lot of time and effort could have been saved if it had been a tick box on the census. During my research, I saw this response to an FOI request: http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/about-ons/business-transparency/freedom-of-information/what-can-i-request/previous-foi-requests/population/did-the-2011-census-captured-disability-by-type-or-wheelchair-users-across-the-uk/index.html
It states that it was deemed not useful enough and deliberately omitted from the census. I would like to see the documents surrounding this decision, and to request that it be considered again when preparing the next census. As a wheelchair user, I can think of quite a number of good uses for such data, a number of which would save the public purse.
We said
The demand for questions in a census is always greater than can be accommodated on a self-completion questionnaire and due to these space constraints, only those questions that have been shown to be most needed by the major users of census statistics were included in the 2011 Census in England and Wales. The questions were developed during a four year programme of consultation, research and testing with central and local government, public and private bodies, charities, the academic sector and the public sector.
To launch the consultation with users in May 2005, ONS published “2011 Census: Initial view on content for England and Wales”. Annex A of this document included a set of criteria used to evaluate the strength of requests for information. The extent to which topics met these criteria was a prominent consideration in determining whether or not the information would be collected by the 2011 Census.
The document is available as a download on the website.
In response to this consultation there was some demand for information on wheelchair or mobility vehicle use to be collected in the census. This was evaluated using the criteria detailed in the consultation document and a scoring system to rank topics according to the strength of user requirement. The decision was that the user need for the information was not strong enough to justify the inclusion of a question on wheelchair use. More information about the assessment of user requirements on the content of the 2011 Census, in particular the download file ‘ Health and care’.
You have asked that consideration be given to the inclusion of a question on wheelchair use in the 2021 Census. ONS plans to start consultation about the topics and questions to be included in the 2021 Census in 2015 and proposals and plans will be published on the ONS website. I have asked the relevant team to ensure that you are included in any communications regarding the consultation.