The Census (Scotland) Regulations 2020

EXPLANATORY NOTE

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

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.