Kernow - Census on obstinacy continues

Dozens of letters have now been sent to the Office of National Statistics (ONS) and other bodies and parliamentary representatives by the Celtic League, in an attempt to influence the decision to include a Cornish tick box on the 2011 Census form. However, the ONS are continuing to obstinately pursue the same tired argument much to the increasing frustration of campaigners. Below is a brief synopsis to date, by the General Secretary of the League, of where the campaign stands at the moment.

At the last AGM of the Celtic League in September 2007, the following resolution was passed :

«That the Annual General Meeting of the Celtic League in Cardiff on 29th September, 2007, calls upon the Westminster Government and the Office for National Statistics to include a specific Cornish tick box in the Census planned for 2011 so giving the Cornish people parity with the other Celtic Nations and National Minorities of Great Britain.»

However, even before this, the Kernow Branch of the League had been pursuing its own campaign to persuade the ONS to seriously consider the option of a specific Cornish ethnicity tick box in the 2011 Census.

Back in 2001, the Branch had been active in distributing leaflets informing the public that they had the option, for the first time, of ticking the 'other' box under the 'ethnicity' question and filling in Cornish if they so wished. In addition, one member even became part of the Census remuneration team to inform the public of this fact. Information relating to the 'fill in' Cornish option was poorly disseminated by the ONS who relied heavily on grassroots organisations like the League to inform the public of this option. Nevertheless, about 34 000 people in Cornwall and 3 500 people in the rest of the UK wrote on their census forms in 2001 that they were Cornish.

In addition to their letter writing campaign, the Kernow Branch has also attended every scheduled ONS meeting to discuss the 2011 Census in Wales and England. Their enthusiasm finally persuaded the ONS to call a special meeting in Truro to discuss the options further. The Truro meeting was extremely well attended, but once again the ONS covered their usual ground, much to the frustration of campaigners.

To date the ONS position has remained more or less the same for many months and can briefly be summed up as follows :

«There will not be enough space in the 2011 England and Wales Census questionnaire to accommodate all the tick-boxes that Census users and respondents might wish to see included in the ethnic group question.

We are certainly sympathetic to the case for a Cornish tick-box in the 2011 Census ethnic group question.

For those groups that are not specifically covered with a tick-box, the ethnicity question contains an 'other, please write in' box.»

The following comment is one of the main arguments the ONS is using to justify their current position :

«As the Census is for all of England and Wales, any decisions we make needs to be for England and Wales as a whole, which may mean that tick-box options are presented that will elicit more responses in some areas than others.»

The ONS has also stated, in correspondence with Branch members, that :

«...an Equality Impact Assessment (EIA) on the Ethnicity, Identity, Language and Religion question development process to identify the likely impact on race, gender, and disability equality of this policy, in order that any adverse impact can be eliminated or reduced to the greatest possible extent within the available resources.»

«As a result of the EIA, ONS have developed principles to prioritise which groups will be covered by tick-boxes and which will be covered by 'Other' written-in answers. The prioritisation principles are based on the following themes : Strength of need for information on that group ; Lack of alternative sources of information ; Clarity and quality of the information collected and acceptability to respondents ; Comparability with 2001 data ; and Operational considerations such as length of question(s), speed and cost-effectiveness of processing, and ability to collect comparable information in other surveys.»

In a letter dated 8th February 2008 to the League, Ian Cope, the 2011 Census Director says :

«With regard to the 2011 Census we will be shortly starting a programme of consultation focusing on what requirements users have for accessing outputs and the media for dissemination. In 2009 further consultation will focus on users requirements for the content of outputs. This later consultation will help inform which write in responses will be allocated a code so that statistical output can be produced.»

Other information provided by the ONS states that the League will have to wait until 2010 to find out for sure. The ONS say :

«A White Paper setting out the Government's proposals including the wording of any questions about ethnicity and identity is scheduled to be published in Autumn 2008. However it will not be possible to confirm what questions and response categories are to be included in the 2011 Census until the consultation and question testing programme is complete and formal approval is given by Parliament in 2010.»

2010 though would be far too late to change minds, if indeed that is possible at all. The ONS seem to be offering what they see to be as some sort of 'consolation prize' to the Cornish if a specific tick-box is not included on the 2011 forms. They have stated that :

«In addition to the ethnic group question ONS will be recommending that a national identity question is asked before the ethnic group question in the 2011 Census. The national identity question will give all people the opportunity to express their affiliation with one or more of the UK countries and/or any other national identity (ies), which will allow respondents to identify for example as both Cornish and British.

The national identity question will provide richer data than having national identities only under the White categories, as this would not give people from other ethnic groups the opportunity to express their affiliation to different nations.»

An online petition has now been set up and the Branch plans to follow the effective 'Dead Welsh' publicity stunt undertaken during the 2001 Census, where a coffin was symbolically taken around Wales and people asked to put their unfilled Census forms in it. Members of the Branch who have written to the ONS have stated that if a specific Cornish tick-box is not present on the 2011 Census form, then they will not fill out the form at all in protest.

Other Celtic League branches and supporters are asked to write to the ONS to request a specific tick-box for Cornish and show their support for the Cornish case.

(Report prepared by Rhisiart Tal-e-bot)

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J B Moffatt Director of Information Celtic League

07/04/08