These Regulations are made under the Census Act 1920. They are made for the purpose of enabling the Census (Scotland) Order 2020 (“the Order”) to be carried into effect.

Regulation 3 sets out how a person required to make a return under the Order can make that return and when their obligation is discharged. It introduces schedules 1 to 4 which set out the questions, instructions and response options that a person making a return will be required to respond to if making a return online or by telephone, and schedules 5 to 8 which contain the questionnaires that a person making a return on paper will be required to use. The questions, instructions and response options in schedules 1 to 4 may be modified or translated for the purpose of making it easier for a person making a return to understand those questions, instructions and response options. The Registrar General may also modify the questionnaires in schedules 5 to 8 may for the purpose of making those questionnaires easier for a person making a return to understand or use.

Regulation 4 places duties on persons in charge of communal establishments to pass on access codes for online returns or paper questionnaires to those in their establishment required to make a return. (These access codes and questionnaires will have been provided by the Registrar General.) It also places a duty on those persons to collect completed paper questionnaires and deliver them to the Registrar General.

Regulation 5 imposes a duty to provide information reasonably required by the person obliged to make a census return to enable them to do so.

Regulation 6 provides that information given for census purposes must not be used, published or communicated other than for the purpose of the Census Act 1920, the Order or these Regulations.

Regulation 7 revokes the Census (Scotland) Regulations 2010 and the Census (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2010.