Botched census costs more than double to £140m

Scottish Liberal Democrats have today revealed that the cost of the Scottish Government’s botched census is projected to hit £140m, more than double the £63.5million spent on the 2011 census in Scotland.

A freedom of information request by the party revealed that the total spending to 31/3/2023 by National Records of Scotland on Scotland’s Census 2022 is £135m with a further £5m expected to be spent over the next two financial years, taking the overall forecasted position to £140m.

For the first time the Scottish census was conducted separately from the rest of the UK.

Commenting on the figures, Willie Rennie MSP said:

"Going it alone was a foolish decision from SNP ministers. The Auditor General warned that this led to increased costs and additional work. Taxpayers have ended up paying far more for fewer people to respond.

“Ministers made significant changes including moving the census online and getting out of sync with data collection elsewhere in the UK. Then they refused to learn any lessons out of nationalistic belligerence.

“Now we are seeing the exorbitant price tag, it just hammers home to the public once again that the SNP cannot be trusted to deliver a project on time.

“What’s even worse is that botching the census will now have a knock-on effect on the delivery of government services for the next decade. The Cabinet Secretary in charge needs to set out what kind of review of the census process will be done and how the government will ensure that these errors are not repeated.”