Census - the end of an era?

The first thing that catches the eye outside the impressive town hall in the South Yorkshire town of Rotherham is a big, black iron cannon.

It is no mere decoration. The local iron works of Walker and Co turned them out for 40 years from the 1790s. Most of the guns aboard Nelson's flagship, the Victory, were made by the Rotherham ironworkers.

But the Government of the time had no real idea whether they had enough able-bodied men to use the guns, sail the ships or man the battalions. Information about the size of the UK population was patchy at best.

That is one reason why Britain held its first national Census in 1801.

Over 200 years later these once-every-decade snapshots of the population are still seen as a vital part of the way in which we plan our futures.

The 2011 Census takes place on 27 March and forms should have been delivered to every household in the country by now by the Government's Office of National Statistics.

These days the results are used more for planning whether we have enough schools, roads and other public services than preparing for battle.

Rotherham Council's policy officer Miles Crompton told me there were obvious advantages to local authorities and Government to a UK-wide census where every household has a legal obligation to fill in the form.

But is it how we should be working in the 21st Century?

The cabinet minister in charge, Francis Maude, has already said that 2011 could see the last UK-wide census.

Cost is a major factor. The army of collectors and analysts will create a final bill of almost £1/2bn.

Then there is the way in which the information rapidly goes out of date. Can a survey which takes place just once a decade provide sufficient accuracy?

But it is a controversial issue judging by the flutter of interest in a question I posed on my regular TinglePolitics tweets.

Given the ability of modern digital technology to quickly sift and cross reference data from multiple sources is a single 10-year census now redundant?

Then there is the issue of privacy.

The No2ID campaign believes that the Government's promises of ensuring that personal information will be sealed for a century will be very difficult to keep.

And there is the growing intrusiveness of the questions.

In the past it was simply a list of names, ages and jobs.

Now the form has 32 pages and wants to hear a long list of personal information ranging from ethnicity and religion to whether your civil partner is of the same sex.

The Director of the Census, Glen Watson, tells the Politics Show for Yorkshire that it should take 10 minutes to fill either the traditional paper form or an electronic version online.

He believes most people do not mind.

From the answers of a couple of mature ladies interviewed in the street for the programme he could be right.

"I don't mind answering at all," said one.

"Do you mind answering?" she asked her friend.

"No, I've got nothing to be ashamed about," she replied.

"Unfortunately."

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