Covid actually skews a lot of the answers and arguably makes it less useful. You have to answer for your exact circumstances as of yesterday. Delaying it was considered by the U.K. government as well for that reason (Scotland and Northern Ireland could decide separately. NI are doing it now in the same way). It wasn’t considered for long though - it’s a lot of time and work in the making. If you are currently furloughed, or out of work, or temporarily living somewhere different due to Covid for example, the info they obtain wouldn’t necessarily be particularly useful for the next ten years for planning and fund allocation, so delaying it to next year makes some sense. It wasn’t delayed as Covid stops people doing it, it was delayed as Covid will significantly effect the findings, but not as significantly long term.
The initial phase is done online, but for those who haven’t completed it, the only way of ensuring compliance is a knock on the door at some point. I’d guess that the English and Welsh have decided that non-compliance is a small enough number to send round a risk assessed socially distanced Census officer, and the Scottish decided that risk was too great. it’d be interesting to see whether initial compliance figures are usually greater for England than Scotland. Because I’ve a gut feeling that might be the case.
I can only assume that, because some people's circumstances will have changed due to covid, they feel that the results might be skewed as a result. For example, the number of people working from home, or even unemployed, will be much higher now, than say if they did the census this time next year (or this time last year for that matter). Some changes will have been brought about by this unique situation, and will only (hopefully) be temporary. I suppose it doesn't give an accurate reflection of change from the last census.
