The government has apologised for some of the problems experienced by people filling in their census forms online over the weekend and have advised that there are still several weeks left before the deadline for completion.

Issues with the online forms arose during some of the busiest times, on Saturday night and Sunday morning.

One reader who contacted the Manx Independent voiced the problems many were having.

He said: ’After two hours online I am only a quarter of the way through and been thrown out of the website for the fourth time and feel like giving up.’

The problems were not related to the large numbers of people attempting to complete their forms at the same time as this level of capacity had been planned for in advance.

A spokesman for the Isle of Man Government said: ’The online census system experienced some technical issues on Sunday and Monday. These were due to a software issue specific to the online census service and not related to server capacity.

’The public are thanked for their patience and the Government apologises for any inconvenience or frustration this may have caused. The access issue was resolved in the early hours of Sunday night into Monday morning with some performance issues persisting throughout Monday.’

Despite this, more than 22,000 census forms have now been completed online at www.gov.im/census, meaning that over half of the island’s households have now submitted their census information digitally.

And, although the information on the census forms should reflect the circumstances of households as they were on Sunday May 30, anyone in a household which hasn’t yet submitted their form has no need to worry as there are still several weeks left in which to do so.

The spokesman said: ’Reminder letters will be issued in the middle of June to any households which haven’t completed a census form. From Monday, June 21, if census forms have still not been completed, census field officers will begin visiting households to offer assistance.’

The 2021 Census is the first to be ’digital by default’ meaning that anyone who wishes to complete a paper form needs to request one.

There was also acknowledgment of complaints that not everyone who had requested a paper form had received one. The spokesman said: ’The census team are working to process a number of requests for paper forms and these should arrive at people’s homes over the next few days.’

The census is an important tool that helps the Government to plan for the future, with the data helping to shape future government policy and public services including school, hospital and maternity capacity requirements. Local authorities need to know how many people live in their area in order to optimise the services they provide. Businesses also use the census results when they are considering whether or not to establish a presence in the island and, if so, where to site new factories, offices and shops.

Results of the 2021 Census will be available in early 2022.

Anyone requiring assistance should contact the census team by calling 685700 or emailing [email protected].