The nation’s sleeping arrangements are to come under scrutiny in the next countrywide census, it has emerged.

The 2011 survey will include questions on the number of bedrooms in a person’s home, as well as the name, sex and birth-date of any overnight visitors.

Nick Hurd, the Shadow Cabinet Office Minister, yesterday called it a “snooper” census, hitting out at “invasive and intrusive” new demands.

There will also be new questions about second homes and what kind of central heating is installed, as well as queries on citizenship, language and the length of time overseas nationals intend to stay in the country.

Fines of £1,000 can be imposed for failing to answer or giving a false answer to census questions.

Mr Hurd said that the new demands showed no respect for privacy and would undermine public confidence in the census, due to be held on March 27, 2011.

“An increasingly invasive and intrusive census will erode public support, cost more and result in a less accurate survey,” he added.

“Just because the Government has the legal powers to ask these questions does not give the State the licence to ask anything they want.

“These bedroom snoopers are yet another sign of how the Labour Government has no respect for the privacy of law-abiding citizens.”

The Tories point out that the 2001 census asked only for the name and address of overnight visitors. They warn that the prying nature of the questions in the 32-page form will reduce public support for the exercise, increase the cost to the taxpayer, lower the response rate and ultimately result in a less comprehensive survey of the population.

They say that the combination of questions will allow officials to work out the sleeping arrangements of Britons.

The census, carried out every ten years, aims to give a snapshot of demographic and social changes in the UK.

The Conservatives claim that it is becoming ever-more intrusive. Questions in the 2001 survey that were not in the previous one in 1991 included those on religion, general health, provision of unpaid care, time since someone last worked, type of landlord, whether someone was a schoolchild/student, lowest-floor level of the accommodation and the size of the workforce at a place of work.

The 2011 census, which has yet to be approved by MPs, proposes new questions on type of central heating, number of bedrooms, national identity, type of passport held, date of entry into the UK and intended length of stay (for non-UK born), language and second residences.

By numbers

— The word “census” was coined by the Romans, but the Egyptians had already held one long before, in 500BC

— The first known census in the UK took place in the seventh century in Scotland

— The statistician John Rickman led early UK census gatherers, starting in 1801. He pointed out the need to plan corn production “and thus to know the number of people who had to be fed”

— 360,000 registered as members of the “Jedi” religion in 2001, making it the fourth-largest UK “faith”

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