DETAILS about exactly how many people failed to return their census forms in Bolton will not be made public until June next year.

The process of collating the data from the millions of forms across the country will continue for 10 months and exact figures will not be revealed until then.

There are currently five people in the North-west facing prosecution for not returning the forms, but none of them are from the Bolton area.

People who fail to send the yellow form back could face a £1,000 fine.

A spokesman for the Office for National Statistics said: "We don't want to have to prosecute anyone and thankfully most people agree to fill in a form before this happens."

More than 60 per cent of forms in Bolton were completed and sent back before the deadline, which was better than the national average. Many others were collected by 300 census officials who went knocking on doors.

Breightmet fared badly in the town, with poor return rates of just 40 per cent. Horwich, meanwhile, had a rate of 80 per cent.

Extra postmen were drafted into Bolton to cope with the form returns. It was the first time people were expected to post back the document rather than have it collected by enumerators.

The spokesman for the ONS said they were expecting an overall return rate of around 98 per cent, with the 2 per cent consisting of homes which are unoccupied or second homes.

Government funding to Bolton Council over the next 10 years will be based on the number of residents officially recorded in the census.