The Census General Regulations, 1931
[10 March 1931]
1931. No. 150
THE
THE CENSUS GENERAL REGULATIONS, 1931, DATED MARCH 10, 1931,* MADE BY THE MINISTER OF HEALTH UNDER SECTION 3 (1) OF THE CENSUS ACT, 1920 (10 & 11 GEO. 5. c. 41), FOR THE PURPOSE OF ENABLING ANY ORDER IN COUNCIL DIRECTING A CENSUS TO BE TAKEN, TO BE CARRIED INTO EFFECT.
1931, No. 150.
The Minister of Health in pursuance of the powers conferred
on him by subsection (1) of section 3 of the Census Act, 1920,
and of all other powers enabling him in that behalf, hereby makes
the following Regulations:—
1. (1) These Regulations may be cited as the Census General
Regulations, 1931.
(2) In these Regulations, unless the context otherwise requires—
"The Minister" means the Minister of Health;
"The Act" means the Census Act, 1920;
"The Act and Regulations" means the Act, these Regulations,
and any other regulations made under the Act;
"Census Order" means any Order in Council made under
section 1 of the Act;
"Census" means any census directed by a Census Order
to be taken;
"Special Regulations" means, in relation to any Census
Order and census, any regulations which may be made for the
purpose of giving effect to the Census Order;
"Census day" means the day upon which a census is to be taken;
"Enumerator" means an officer appointed under paragraph
(1) of Article 3 of these Regulations;
"Prescribed person" means a person required by a Census
Order to make a return;
"Registrar" means a registrar of births and deaths and
includes an interim registrar of births and deaths, and any
person for the time being appointed by the Registrar-General
to act in the place of a registrar for the purposes of these
Regulations.
(3) The Interpretation Act, 1889,(a)
applies to the interpretation
of these Regulations as it applies to an Act of Parliament.
Enumeration Districts.
2. (1) It shall be the duty of a registrar, when so required by
the Registrar-General, to prepare and submit to the Registrar-General
in such manner and within such period as the Registrar-General
may direct, a scheme for the division of the registration
sub-district in which he acts as registrar into districts for the
purpose of a census enumeration.
(2) The Registrar-General may approve any such scheme with
or without modifications, and the divisions shown in any scheme
so approved shall, until the scheme is superseded by a further
scheme, be enumeration districts for the purposes of any census.
Appointment of Enumerators, etc.
3. For the purpose of any census—
(1) The Registrar-General may appoint, or authorise a
registrar, subject to his approval, to appoint for any
enumeration district an officer who shall perform in that
enumeration district the duties of an enumerator under
the Act and Regulations.
(2) Any relieving officer or collector of the general rate shall,
if so required by the Registrar-General by writing under
his hand, with the approval of the Minister, act as
enumerator for any enumeration district in which such
officer or collector resides or performs the duties of his
office.
(3) In the case of an enumeration district comprising only
persons with respect to whom a single prescribed person
is required by a Census Order to make a return, a registrar
shall, if so required by the Registrar-General, act
as enumerator for that district.
(4) Every registrar and every person appointed or required
to act as enumerator under these Regulations and every
person assisting a registrar or enumerator in the performance
of his duties shall, in the case of a registrar
at such time as the Registrar-General may direct and
in any other case before he acts as such enumerator
or assistant, or performs any of his duties as such,
sign an undertaking in the form set forth in the
Schedule to these Regulations or in a form substantially
to the like effect faithfully to perform his duties
under the Act and these Regulations.
Forms of Return.(a)
4. (1) Every return made by or on behalf of a prescribed person
shall be made on such form as may be prescribed by the special
Regulations and shall comply with any instructions shown on the
form.
(2) The Registrar-General may cause any such forms to be translated
into Welsh or into any other language if it appears to him
necessary for the purpose of the census enumeration, and paragraph
(1) of this Article and the Regulations by which the form is
prescribed shall apply to any forms so translated.
Delivery and Collection of Returns.
5. (1) Every registrar shall enter in the enumeration books
provided for the purpose of the census enumeration by the
Registrar-General such particulars as the Registrar-General may
require and shall; not later than fourteen days before the census
day, furnish every enumerator appointed or required under these
Regulations to act for an enumeration district within his registration
sub-district with such an enumeration book and with a sufficient
number of forms of return and such other forms as may be necessary
for the purpose of the census enumeration.
(2) The enumerator shall, not earlier than eight days and not
later than the day before the census day, deliver to each prescribed
person in his district or to a person acting on behalf of such prescribed
person the appropriate form of return, and shall, upon so
delivering the form, enter thereon and in the enumeration book
such particulars as the Registrar-General may require.
(3) The enumerator shall, if so requested by any prescribed
person or by any person acting on behalf of such prescribed person,
give such explanations as to the form of return or the procedure
to be followed in making the return as are reasonably necessary to
enable the prescribed person to make a proper return.
6. Every person with respect to whom it is the duty of a prescribed
person to make a return shall give to the prescribed person
such information as he may reasonably require for the purpose of
enabling him to make the return:
Provided that no person shall use, publish, or communicate to
any other person any information so given otherwise than in accordance
with these Regulations.
7. (1) Any person who may be entitled under any special
Regulations to claim to be allowed to make a confidential return
may serve on the enumerator upon his attending to deliver the
form of return a claim on a form to be provided for the purpose by
the registrar of the registration sub-district within which the
enumerator acts.
(2) The enumerator shall upon being served with a claim deliver
to such person a separate form of return and shall, upon delivering
the form of return to the prescribed person who would but for such
claim be required to make a return in respect of the person claiming,
give notice of the claim to the prescribed person.
(3) Where such claim and notice have been duly served, the
prescribed person to whom notice is given shall not include in his
return any particulars with respect to the person claiming other
than the name of such person and the relation in which he stands
to the prescribed person, and the person so claiming shall be
deemed to be the prescribed person w7ith respect to himself and
shall, in making his return, state therein the name of the person
who but for the claim would have been required to make the return.
8. (1) When the particulars required by the Census Order to be
stated in the returns include particulars as to the rooms
occupied by the persons with respect to whom the return is to be made, the
enumerator shall, upon attending at any premises to deliver a
form of return to a prescribed person, make all such inquiries as
are reasonably necessary for the purpose of ascertaining such particulars,
and shall enter the particulars so ascertained upon the
form of return before it is delivered.
(2) The person to whom the return is delivered shall give the
enumerator all such information as he may reasonably require for
the purpose of making the entry aforesaid.
9. (1) The enumerator shall, as nearly as may be in the course
of the day following the census day, collect all forms of return
delivered by him and shall examine each return and satisfy himself
that the entries thereon are properly and sufficiently made, and
shall make all such inquiries as are reasonably necessary for that
purpose and shall himself make such corrections in the return as
appear to him on inquiry to be required.
(2) Every person shall give to the enumerator all such information
as may reasonably be required by him for the performance of
his duties under paragraph (1) of this Article.
10. The enumerator shall, on receiving each return, enter upon
the return and in his enumeration book such particulars as may be
required by the Registrar-General to be so entered, and shall within
eight days after the census day—
(a) enter in the enumeration book and in all forms of return
collected by him such further particulars as may be
required by the Registrar-General; and
(b) deliver to the registrar the enumeration book and the
returns of all prescribed persons in his district duly
completed as aforesaid, and do such other acts and things
relating to the census enumeration in his district as
may be required by instructions and directions of the
Registrar-General given under these Regulations.
11. (1) The registrar shall examine the enumeration books
and the returns so delivered to him, and where it appears to him
that any book or return is incomplete or that any entry on a return
is insufficient or is inconsistent with any other entries, he shall
require the enumerator from whom it was received to take such
steps as may be reasonably necessary, whether by inquiry from any
prescribed person or otherwise, to complete or correct the book or
return, and to forward the book or return duly completed or
corrected to the registrar within the period specified by the registrar
for that purpose.
(2) The registrar shall, within forty days after the census day,
forward to the Registrar-General the enumeration books duly completed
for all enumeration districts within the registration sub-district,
together with the returns made by all the prescribed persons
within that sub-district, and do such other acts and things relating
to the census enumeration as may be required by instructions of
the Registrar-General given under these Regulations.
Miscellaneous.
12. The Registrar-General may himself give, or may authorise a registrar to give, to an enumerator, and may give to a registrar, such instructions or directions, whether particular or general, as he may think necessary for the due performance by registrars or enumerators of their duties under the Act and Regulations, and any such instructions or directions shall be complied with by any registrar or enumerator to whom they are given.
13. Where it appears to the Registrar-General that a registrar or enumerator is for reasons of health or otherwise unfit to perform his duties under the Act and Regulations, the Registrar-General may appoint some fit and proper person in his place to perform such duties.
14. The Registrar-General may, if he thinks fit, require a registrar or enumerator to make a statutory declaration that such registrar or enumerator has properly and sufficiently performed his duties under the Act and Regulations and may authorise the superintendent registrar of the district, or, in the case of an enumerator, the registrar of the registration sub-district, to take such declaration.
15. The Registrar-General may appoint any superintendent registrar or, with the consent of a local authority, any officer of that local authority, to be a census advisory officer for any area, and any person so appointed shall perform such duties in relation to a census as the Registrar-General may assign to him.
16. A person having the custody, whether on his own behalf or on behalf of any other person, of any forms of return, enumeration books or other confidential documents relating to a census shall keep such forms books and other documents in such manner as to prevent any unauthorised person having access thereto.
SCHEDULE
I,
[*being the registrar or interim registrar of the
registration sub-district, or a person appointed by the Registrar-General
to act in the place of the registrar of the
registration sub-district for the purposes of the Census General Regulations,
1930, or being an enumerator appointed for the purposes of the Census,
19 , or being an assistant employed by
for the purposes of the Census, 19 ]
hereby undertake and promise faithfully to perform the duties imposed
by the Census Act, 1920, and the Census General Regulations, 1930, so far
as applicable to me, and to fulfil all the obligations required of me by the
Act and by the Regulations, and I hereby state that I have read and
understand the provisions hereunto annexed of section 8 of the Act, and of
Article 16 of the Census General Regulations, 1930.
Signed.....................................
In the presence of......................................
Section 8 of the Census Act, 1920, is as follows:—
" 8. (1) If any person—
(a) refuses or neglects to comply with or acts in contravention of any
of the provisions of this Act or any Order in Council or
regulations made under this Act; or
(b) being a person required under this Act to make a statutory declaration
with respect to the performance of his duties, makes a false
declaration; or
(c) being a person required by any Order in Council or regulations
made under this Act to make, sign, or deliver any document,
makes, signs, or delivers, or causes to be made, signed, or
delivered a false document; or
(d) being a person required in pursuance of any such Order in Council
or regulations to answer any question, refuses to answer or gives
a false answer to that question;
he shall for each offence be liable on summary conviction to a fine not
exceeding ten pounds.
(2) If any person—
(a) being a person employed in taking a census, without lawful
authority publishes or communicates to any person otherwise
than in the ordinary course of such employment any information
acquired by him in the course of his employment; or
(b) having possession of any information which to his knowledge has
been disclosed in contravention of this Act, publishes or communicates
that information to any other person;
he shall be guilty of a misdemeanour, and shall on conviction be liable
to imprisonment with or without hard labour for a term not exceeding
two years or to a fine, or to both such imprisonment and fine."
Article 16 of the Census General Regulations, 1930, is as follows:—
"16. A person having the custody, whether on his own behalf or
on behalf of any other person, of any forms of return, enumeration
books or other confidential documents relating to a census shall keep
such forms books and other documents in such manner as to prevent
any unauthorised person, having access thereto."
Given under the Official Seal of the Minister of Health this tenth day of March, nineteen hundred and thirty-one.
W. A. Robinson,
Secretary,
Ministry of Health.
NOTES
* These Regulations supersede the Provisional Regulations which were made on the 24th day of November, 1930.
(a) See the reference at p.88 below to the Census Special Provisional Regulations, 1931.