UK Address Register: Parliament makes recommendations
The UK Parliament London Regional Committee published a report titled: London’s population and the 2011 Census. Report, together with formal minutes and oral and written evidence. (References: HC 349. Published on 31 March 2010. Pages = 201. First Report of Session 2009–10)
The Committee’s report was published on the same day that the UK Government published their response to the Policy Options for geographic information from Ordnance Survey – Consultation. Although the Consultation asked the question (Question 9): What are your comments on the proposal for a single National Address Register and suggestions for mechanisms to deliver it? The Government made no response as to the actions they intended to take.
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The Parliamentary Committee report Summary states (Reference page 3):
“We welcome the creation of a national address register for the census, but find it barely credible that this valuable resource is not to be maintained after 2011. We recommend that the Government deal with the intellectual property issues which inhibit maintenance of the register as a matter of urgency.”
The Committee on pages 8 & 9 make the following recommendations:
“Our recommendations
18. We make this report to the House at the end of a Parliament and shortly before the expiry of the Order of the House which has established this Committee. It will be for the House of Commons elected at the forthcoming general election to determine what, if any, arrangements there should be for select committee scrutiny of the Government’s policies in London.
19. Our report contains several important recommendations for the conduct of the census in London, which we address as appropriate to the Minister for the Cabinet Office, the Minister for London and the UK Statistics Authority, the non-ministerial department responsible to Parliament for the Office for National Statistics. We expect a response to the report which we have made to the House to be laid before the new House early in the new Parliament. Should a successor to our Committee not be appointed at the start of the 2010 Parliament, we recommend that the Public Administration Select Committee, which has a remit to examine the work of the UK Statistics Authority and the Cabinet Office, consider the response to the report from the UK Statistics Authority and the Government and determine whether any follow-up action is necessary in the run-up to the 2011 Census.”
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The Committee Conclusions and Recommendations (reference page 43):
“11. We are encouraged by the development of a national address register for the 2011 Census. Such a register is vital for a successful Census in London. (Paragraph 87)
12. We note the work which ONS has already done to check and resolve conflicts between the draft register and local authority and Post Office databases. It is nevertheless important not to underestimate the challenges of maintaining an accurate register of addresses for London in the months which remain before Census night. We encourage ONS and London boroughs to maintain and increase present levels of collaboration, in order to ensure that the address register produced for London is as accurate as possible. (Paragraph 90)
13. An accurate and well-maintained national address register is an invaluable tool for the 2011 Census, and will be vital for any future exercises to quantify London’s population. We find it barely credible that the address register developed for the 2011 Census at substantial effort and expense is to be abandoned following the Census for reasons connected to the ownership of the intellectual property. (Paragraph 93)”
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The report states at pages 26 to 28:
“The National Address Register
87. We are encouraged by the development of a national address register for the 2011 Census. Such a register is vital for a successful Census in London.
88. ONS believes that the creation of the address register is “progressing well”: nationally, 216,000 anomalies in the register have now been identified and passed to local authorities for resolution, and a similar number had been sent to the Royal Mail. 46,000 of the anomalies between the address register and local authority databases, approximately 21%, arose in London boroughs, and as of early March all but four boroughs had examined the anomalies and returned corrections. 51,444 anomalies between the draft register and the Royal Mail address database had been identified in respect of addresses in London boroughs, and the ONS estimates that approximately 80% of these anomalies have also been resolved.
89. The accuracy of an address list in London is difficult to maintain for a number of reasons: there are many houses in multiple occupation, and properties are often subdivided without formal notification being given. During the Census rehearsal in Newham, 1267 new addresses were found.76 Some London boroughs fear that their local knowledge is not being fully utilised in the preparation of the register, in particular with respect to the construction of new properties. It seems to us odd that the creation of a national address database should not seek to take all available information into account.
90. We note the work which ONS has already done to check and resolve conflicts between the draft register and local authority and Post Office databases. It is nevertheless important not to underestimate the challenges of maintaining an accurate register of addresses for London in the months which remain before Census night. We encourage ONS and London boroughs to maintain and increase present levels of collaboration, in order to ensure that the address register produced for London is as accurate as possible.
91. We understand that the address register will not be maintained in its present form after 2011, despite the substantial time and effort which has gone into establishing and updating it. Shaun Flanagan of the Cabinet Office told us that when ONS negotiated the contract with the Royal Mail, Ordnance Survey and the Local Government Information House to provide data for the register, a condition of the agreement was that the register would not be re-used, but that any improvements to the data would be fed back to the three providers.
92. The Chair of the UK Statistics Authority has already written to Ministers to make the case for the national register to be maintained beyond 2011.78 The Minister for London told us that negotiations on the future use of the register were ongoing: “there is no dispute about the importance and benefits of resolving this.” That view was echoed by Keith Dugmore of the Demographics User Group, who described it as a “golden opportunity to produce a definitive national address register and to keep it going”. We were nevertheless disheartened to receive no clear answer from the Government on the issue of lead responsibility for negotiating an agreement.
93. An accurate and well-maintained national address register is an invaluable tool for the 2011 Census, and will be vital for any future exercises to quantify London’s population. We find it barely credible that the address register developed for the 2011 Census at substantial effort and expense is to be abandoned following the Census for reasons connected to the ownership of the intellectual property.
94. We concur with the UK Statistics Authority in recommending that the address register prepared for the 2011 Census be maintained as a public resource. We recommend that the Government urgently seek to resolve any outstanding issues with the maintenance of the register after April 2011, and to provide sufficient resources for its continued maintenance and development.”
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UK Parliamentarians prior to the publication of the Committees report have continued to raise questions as to why the issues related to producing a definitive Address Register have not been resolved.
Parliamentary material is reproduced with the permission of the Controller of HMSO on behalf of Parliament
"Cabinet Office
Census
Mr. Maude: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office with reference to the answer to the hon. Member for Brentwood and Ongar of 17 November 2008, Official Report, column 236W, on the Census, what the latest estimated cost is of developing the address register being created for the 2011 Census; what use will be made of the register after the 2011 Census; and whether not-for-profit groups will have access to the register. [312368]
Angela E. Smith: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics
Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply.
Letter from Dennis Roberts, dated January 2010:
The Director General for the Office for National Statistics has been asked to reply to your recent question asking what the latest estimated cost is of developing the address register being created for the 2011 Census; what use will be made of the register after the 2011 Census; and whether not-for-profit groups will have access to the register. I am replying in his absence. (312368)
The total cost of developing the address register up to and through the Census collection period (mid 2011) is now estimated at £10M. This is a reduction from earlier estimates of £12M as the result of a better focused and more efficient field check. These costs are considered necessary and good value for the Census because no single national product provides a suitable address list for Census. These costs include some licensing and operational costs which would have been incurred even if a single national source had existed.
The address register being developed is intended and licensed only for use in the 2011 Census. ONS will not destroy the register after Census but licensing and legal issues around ownership of the source address data mean that we are not able to make the address register available for use by other government departments or others. Accordingly, not-for-profit groups, in common with all other parties, will not have access to the register. However, new addresses found through the ONS address check in mid 2010 will be made available to all of the address source suppliers.
2 Feb 2010 : Column 310W
There are currently no plans for further use of the register to support future censuses or other statistical work but options for such work are being considered. If a case can be made for further use of the register then changes and extensions to existing licensing agreements would be required.
We would like to see the address register (excluding those addresses found during the census field operation, which are deemed confidential under the 1920 Census Act) built upon for further and wider use. Maintenance of the list beyond the 201 1 Census, however, falls outside the resources and the remit of the current project, and of ONS as a whole. Steps are being taken, however, to ensure that processes are repeatable and ONS would support the wider use of the register if this can be managed."
UK: National Address Registers: Do they exist?
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