FOI reference: FOI-2024-1764
You asked
I would like to know how many people did not return their 2021 census forms.
I also wish to know how many of the above figure have been fined.
We said
Thank you for your freedom of information request.
The return rate for Census 2021 was 97%, meaning that 3% of households did not respond to the census during the data-collection operation. More information about return and response rates can be found in our publication Maximising the quality of Census 2021 population estimates - Office for National Statistics (ons.gov.uk).
Details around non-compliance with the 2021 Census will be published in the Census 2021 General Report (due to be published later this year).
As such, the information you have requested is considered exempt under Section 22(1) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000, whereby information is exempt from release if there is a view to publish the information in the future.
After weighing up the competing public interest considerations, we consider it is reasonable that the information held should be withheld from disclosure until the future date of publication and that the public interest in maintaining the exemption outweighs the public interest in disclosure. As a central government department, we need to have the freedom to determine our own publication timetables. This is to allow us to deal with the necessary preparation, administration and context of publications.