ONS have published the Questions and Answers (pdf) from the September Operations to Outputs roadshows. Responses to the 122 questions covering topics including: the address register, field operations, online services and outputs.
In addition to the ONS response to Q117:
“What is happening with SASPAC (Small Area Statistical Package) data?“
The ONS response was: “SASPAC is a separate body to ONS. We are working with them and they will continue to get census data.“
We can add that SASPAC is indeed a partner working with ONS to help them develop the online data delivery systems and are in the process of developing a new SASPAC application to access the 2011 outputs. Interested users can keep up to date with progress reports and development activity through this site and by registering your email address in the menu to the right of this blog.
Mock table layouts for the 2011 Census Standard Theme Table outputs have been published by ONS. These include 19 tables that represent detailed cross tabulations focused on a specific theme such as migration, ethnicity or dependant children. Table layouts are broadly consistent with their 2001 equivalents but there are also an additional 10 Theme tables proposed which focus on new topics such as ‘year of arrival’ and ‘national identity’ (published back in October). A direct link to the downloadable zip file on the ONS website is here or the page containing all the proposed tables here.
The December Census Newsletter has been published by ONS. This aims to keep partners up to date with developments and progress towards delivering the 2011 outputs. Highlights from this issue are:
the 2011 Census output prospectus/timetable will be released in March 2012
a Census toolkit to assist in the promotion of the outputs is planned for spring 2012
local authorities are urged to submit council tax data to assist with the Census QA process
comments on the recent special outputs workshop materials are required by 17 December
To register to receive these updates directly, forward your contact details to 2011.Census.LA.Liaison@ons.gov.uk. ONS expect to produce these every 2/3 months.
Mock table layouts for the 2011 Census Standard Table outputs have been published by ONS. These represent the detailed cross tabulations from the Census and will be available for ward/SOA geography and larger areas. 126 table layouts are available in an Excel format but these do not include proposed new tables or the Standard Theme Tables ONS also plan to produce. A direct link to the downloadable zip file on the ONS website is here.
For the 2011 Census outputs ONS are proposing a new geography of workplace zones (WPZ) for the publication of workplace statistics. In 2001 the Output Area (OA) hierarchy (produced on a household/residential population threshold) was used but this caused problems in areas with very few or large numbers of workers; the resulting workplace populations varied between 0 and 80,000. The production of WPZ hierarchy propose to improve the outputs available by merging and splitting 2011 OAs so they contain a minimum workforce of 100 person. Other features are:
coverage will be across England & Wales (no plans curently for Northern Ireland or Scotland to introduce WPZ)
WPZ will not cross Middle Layer Super Output Areas (MSOAs)
workforce population will exceed the workforce of any single large workplace (625 workers or more) by adding at least 99 other workers
headcount and headcount flows (area of residence to workplace) will be available for OA/WPZ geographies
More details on the ONS proposals can be found in a recent ONS paper and ongoing consultation on the 2011 outputs produced can be found on the ONS website.
The 2011 ‘Census Area Statistics’ and ‘Theme’ table (these names refer to 2001 conventions and will change for 2011) mock layouts have been made available on the ONS website (under ‘downloads’). These contain the detailed cross tabulations that will be available for the 2011 Census Output Area geographical hierarchy. Excel table layouts for the 78 Census Area and 9 Theme tables are provided but the 34 proposed new tables have not been included. A direct link to the downloadable zip file is here.
Those users that accessed the 2001 Census data produced for urban and rural areas may be interested in an ONS survey looking at the proposed options for classifying these areas following the 2011 Census. More details on the project can be found here, along with a Google map showing the current boundaries. The consultation is open until 25 November 2011 and is being run by a project team that includes: Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs; Office for National Statistics; Department for Communities and Local Government; and Welsh Government.
ONS have added the slides (under ‘downloads’) from the September 2011 Operations to Outputs roadshow events. The events provided a very useful overview of the Census process for both new and experienced users. For those who couldn’t make it the agenda covered:
2011 Census ‘Univariate’ and ‘Key Statistics’ tables (these names refer to 2001 conventions and will change for 2011 outputs) have been made available on the ONS website (under ‘downloads’). These include Excel table layouts for the proposed Key Statistics (24) and Univariate tables (64). A direct link to the downloadable zip file is here.
An ONS news release today marks the beginning of a two year consultation exercise into suitable replacements for the Census. The ‘Beyond 2011‘ programme will examine options for producing detailed information about small areas and neighbourhoods that have traditionally been outputs from the census. The first stage, begins today, is a public consultation aimed at understanding user requirements for statistical data in the future.
Consultation documents can be found here (although the document was not available at the time of writing) and the programme team can be contacted by email. Users interested in this work may wish to attend an RSS ‘Looking Beyond 2011′ event being held on 21/10/11.
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