This week census collection officers will begin visiting Islanders who’ve not returned their census.
The role of the collection officers is to give help and encouragement to those who have not yet filled in their census questionnaire online or on paper after Census Day and direct them to the support services they need.
Collection officers will never need to enter people’s houses; they will always be socially distanced, be equipped with PPE and work in line with all government guidance. They will carry ID to show they are genuinely working on the census.
Ian Cope, Chief Statistician at Statistics Jersey said: “We’ve had a brilliant response to the census, with nine out of ten households having completed their census so far. Efforts now focus on providing support to Islanders who have not yet completed their census.
“The census is a unique survey of all households in Jersey. To be truly representative, we need everyone to be counted. Last week we wrote to almost 7,000 addresses as a reminder to compete the census and we now have 5,000 left to follow up with a home visit.
“Census collection officers are already out and about and will visit households who have not submitted their census. We’re expecting these visits to continue over the next few weeks. Officers will be knocking at doors where our records show there has been no response, to provide in-person support to complete the census.”
“We expect that some of the outstanding addresses will be vacant properties, so I would encourage anyone with a vacant property to contact the Census Office to let us know. You can email us at census@gov.je or call us on 444400.”
Completing the census a legal requirement and Islanders could face a fine of up to £1,000 if they don’t submit their questionnaire. For more information and to complete the census online, please visit gov.je/census.