Next year’s census is back on.

Covid-19 restrictions had the led the government to considered postponing next year’s census to 2022.

But in Tynwald this week, Policy and Reform Minister Ray Harmer said: ’It’s our intention to run a full census as planned in April 2021 subject to any external factors forcing this not to happen.’

He said consideration of delaying the census had not been taken lightly.

Mr Harmer explained: ’However, at the time of consideration the island was not in the excellent position it now finds itself.

’Difficulties presented by the restrictions in place at the time would have made undertaking an accurate census very challenging.

’Ultimately, bad data would have been a worse trade-off than no new data for an extra 12 months.’

Douglas Central MHK Chris Thomas said: ’It’s great news that the census is now back on.’

Initial planning had begun for the 2021 census before the Covid-19 pandemic.

But the idea of delaying it came due to resources being redeployed in response to the health emergency and an expected squeeze on departments’ budgets.

Discussions had been held into the possibility of having a ’micro-census’, as used by a number of European countries.

The plan is for the next census to be online by default.