The Census (Amendment) Act 2000 (2000 c. 24) and Census (Amendment) (Scotland) Act 2000 (2000 asp 3) are acts of the Parliaments of the

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and

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

, respectively. They introduced a question on the religion of respondents to the censuses of

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-west coast of continental Europe, consisting of the countries England, Scotland, and Wales. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the List of European ...

Motivation

The inclusion of a question on religion was recommended in a

white paper A white paper is a report or guide that informs readers concisely about a complex issue and presents the issuing body's philosophy on the matter. It is meant to help readers understand an issue, solve a problem, or make a decision. Since the 199 ...

of March 1999. Parliament has indicated that inclusion of a question on religion was to provide useful demographics information for six key areas, namely "discrimination and racial disadvantage, social exclusion, health and community care planning, religious education in schools, regeneration of the inner cities, and helping voluntary sector religious groups".

Legislation

England and Wales

The Parliament of the United Kingdom enacted the Census (Amendment) Act 2000 in order to provide for the asking of a question on religion in the census of England and Wales. Amendments were made to the original Bill by the

House of Lords The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the lower house, the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England. One of the oldest ext ...

so that no person was to be subject to a penalty for refusing or neglecting to provide details in response to such a question.

Scotland

The

Scottish Executive The Scottish Government (, ) is the executive arm of the devolved government of Scotland. It was formed in 1999 as the Scottish Executive following the 1997 referendum on Scottish devolution, and is headquartered at St Andrew's House in t ...

brought forward similar legislation, the Census (Amendment) (Scotland) Act 2000. The Bill was originally introduced by

Jim Wallace James Robert Wallace, Baron Wallace of Tankerness, (born 25 August 1954) is a Scottish politician serving as a Liberal Democrat life peer in the House of Lords, British House of Lords since 2007. He served as the Deputy First Minister of Scotl ...

and passed through the Parliament, receiving Royal Assent on 10 April 2000. which introduced similar provisions for the inclusion of a question on religion in the census of Scotland. The Scottish Act also provided that a person would not be penalised for failing or refusing to declare a religion on the census.

Northern Ireland

A similar amendment to census legislation was not required in

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ; ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, part of the United Kingdom in the north-east of the island of Ireland. It has been #Descriptions, variously described as a country, province or region. Northern Ireland shares Repub ...

, as the Census Act (Northern Ireland) 1969 already included provisions for the taking of particulars of religion. All censuses in

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

have included a question on religion since 1861.

References

External links

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Image of the Act on the UK Parliamentary website
{{Census in the United Kingdom United Kingdom Acts of Parliament 2000 Censuses in the United Kingdom Acts of the Parliament of the United Kingdom concerning England and Wales