The article in the September issue of WDYTYA? Magazine raises what the future of the Census could look like. I should say at the outset that this will only cover 'England and Wales' including the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man. For the last 30 years social scientists have been saying that the Census is not needed and information can be found elsewhere. In my personal view the Census it just 'Big Brother' and ONS saying that the Census could still be useful to family historians, but they took out the place of birth out of the Census forms. The cost of the 2021 Census was a staggering £900 million.
There is a public consultation available at consultations.ons.gov.uk.
I take ONS' assurances of keeping the data safe with a large pinch of salt as we know the Electoral Commission were hacked in 2021 and didn't know for a year that their Electoral Registers had been, At the beginning of the 20th Century (it was it would have I think for the 1911 Census) the Government said on the Census forms that the information would not be used to verify to Old Age Pensions' dates of birth and there is a file at TNA that shows that that information was used.
We welcome any query on Who When Where. If you have previously posted it on another forum (including the old WDYTYA forum), please state this in your opening post - this will save people redoing the research which has been done before: they can look at it and possibly go further with it.