To ask the Minister of Finance whether he has any plans to remove the second religion question from future censuses, that asks respondents, who confirm they have no faith, to confirm what religious community background they may have come from.

The content and design of the Census 2031 questionnaire will be shaped by user need and legislative requirements. As such NISRA, which has responsibility for the planning and conduct of a census here, launched a public consultation on Census User needs on 28 October this year. That consultation will run for 14 weeks until February 2026 – and will support the next phase to design, test and recommend questions to be included.

After the close of the consultation on 4 February 2026, all responses will be evaluated to inform NISRA’s recommendation for topics to be included in the 2031 Census questionnaire.