The Census Order (Northern Ireland) 2020

Interpretation

2.—(1) In this Order—

“the Act” means the Census Act (Northern Ireland) 1969;

“census day” means 21^st March 2021;

“census night” means the night of 21^st March into 22^nd March 2021;

“dwelling” includes any part of a dwelling and any caravan, boat, vehicle, temporary building or other structure used as living accommodation;

“household” means one person living alone or a group of people (whether or not related) living at the same address who share cooking facilities and any one or more of the following—

(a)

living room,

(b)

sitting room,

(c)

dining area;

“householder” in relation to an address means a person who is a usual resident at that address and either—

(a)

owns or rents accommodation at that address, or

(b)

is responsible for paying household bills and expenses there,

or both and “joint householder” is to be interpreted accordingly;

“individual return”, in relation to any person, means a return made with respect to that person only;

“reckonable visitor” has the meaning given in paragraph (2)(b);

“usual resident” has the meaning given in paragraph (2)(a).

(2) For the purposes of this Order—

(a) A person is a usual resident at an address in Northern Ireland if any of the following applies–

(i) Except where sub-paragraph (iii), (iv), (v) or (vi) applies, the address is the usual address of that person, whether as a member of the household, paying guest, boarder, employee or otherwise;

(ii) that person spends census night at the address and has no usual address, whether in Northern Ireland, or elsewhere;

(iii) in the case of Groups B and C, that person has resided or intends to reside in the premises at the address for a period of 6 months or more beginning on or before census day;

(iv) that person is registered or otherwise enrolled as a full-time pupil or student at an educational institution and the address is a term-time address;

(v) in the case of Group E, that person is spending a period of 6 months or more in custody, whether at the address or elsewhere;

(vi) in the case of Group F, if the address is the usual address of that person and, apart from such address, the person has no other usual address in the United Kingdom;

or

(vii) if that person stays overnight on census night at an address in Group A, B, C, D, E or F and has no usual address in the United Kingdom;

(b) a person is a reckonable visitor at an address in Northern Ireland if the person-

(i) is not a usual resident at that address (within the meaning of sub-paragraph (a)) and stays overnight at that address; or

(ii) is a visitor from outside the United Kingdom and intends to stay in the United Kingdom for less than 3 months (beginning on the date of arrival in the United Kingdom) and stays overnight on census night at that address;

(c) qualification as a reckonable visitor under sub-paragraph (b)(ii) overrides qualification as a usual resident under sub-paragraph (a).

(3) In this Order, any reference to a Group is a reference to that Group as specified in Schedule 1.