Moray MP Douglas Ross has hit out at the SNP’s “disastrous” handling of Scotland’s census.
His call comes after former Moray MP Angus Robertson had to deliver a statement in the Scottish Parliament which confirmed that the deadline for completing the census had been extended by four weeks from the SNP’s initial deadline of May 1.
This was due to almost a quarter of people across Scotland having not yet filled it in. The extension will mean the SNP will hit taxpayers with a bill for a further £10 million. The total cost is now expected to reach at least £30 million.
While Moray’s response rate is slightly above the national average, as of Monday 25th April almost a fifth of households still hadn’t filled it in.
Douglas says the SNP should have listened to Scottish Conservative calls to run the census as normal in sync with the United Kingdom, but says Ministers typically acted like they knew better.
He has urged Moray households who have not yet completed the census to do so.
Moray MP Douglas Ross said: “The SNP Government’s handling of the census has been nothing short of disastrous.
"Almost one in five households in Moray hadn’t completed the census form as of last week which sums up how poor the SNP have run Scotland’s census.
“Angus Robertson has had to admit that this will now cost taxpayers £30 million in total. SNP Ministers repeatedly ignored calls from the Scottish Conservatives to run the census in sync with the rest of the United Kingdom.
"That would have undoubtedly benefitted from a UK wide advertising campaign and we know where the census was run last year returns were at 97%.
“They tried to claim doing it a year later than every other part of the UK would result in the highest response rate. Now we see the exact opposite is true.
“This is all too typical of Angus Robertson and his SNP colleagues acting like they know best, rather than just accepting it would have been best to run the census last year at the same time as elsewhere in the United Kingdom.
“Of course I would urge anyone in Moray who has not yet completed their census form to do so now.
“Everything about this situation points to yet another failure from the SNP which will cost the taxpayer and there will be wider implications for future public policy decisions if the return rates don't improve significantly ."