[2] Parliament has indicated that inclusion of a question on religion was to provide useful demographics information for six key areas, namely "discrimination and racial disadvantage, social exclusion, health and community care planning, religious education in schools, regeneration of the inner cities, and helping voluntary sector religious groups".

Amendments were made to the original Bill by the House of Lords so that no person was to be subject to a penalty for refusing or neglecting to provide details in response to such a question.

[5] The Scottish Executive brought forward similar legislation, the Census (Amendment) (Scotland) Act 2000.

The Bill was originally introduced by Jim Wallace and passed through the Parliament, receiving Royal Assent on 10 April 2000.

The Scottish Act also provided that a person would not be penalised for failing or refusing to declare a religion on the census.