Department details

Introduction

The collection of statistical data has traditionally been a decentralised function in UK government. Although the gathering of information on births, marriages and deaths, and the administration of the census became the responsibility of a separate office (the General Register Office and its successors) in 1837, in other areas statistics have tended to be the responsibility of statistical units attached to each government department. Only since the Second World War have central statistical departments emerged with a remit to gather and analyse data across a wide range of topics. There is still no general statistics law in the UK governing the roles and responsibilities of the official statistical service. Statistics continue to be gathered through a variety of ad hoc enactments such as the Census Act 1920, the Population Statistics Act 1938, the Statistics of Trade Act 1947 and the Agricultural Statistics Act 1979; and through the requirements of European Community legislation.1

Since 1996 central statistical functions have been the responsibility of the Office for National Statistics (ONS). This administrative history covers ONS and its predecessors: the General Register Office (1837-1970), the Government Social Survey Department (1940-1970), the Central Statistical Office (1941-1996), the Business Statistics Office (1969-1989), and the Office of Population Censuses and Surveys (1970-1996). It also covers the Government Statistical Service, an umbrella organisation established in 1968 to co-ordinate statistical work across UK government.

General Register Office (1837-1970)

The General Register Office (GRO) was created by the Births and Deaths Registration Act 1836, and came into being in the following year when the civil registration of births, deaths and marriages was introduced. The first Registrar General, Thomas Henry Lister, was appointed in September 1836. The GRO was a subordinate department of the Home Office from 1837 until 1871, when it passed to the Local Government Board. It was later transferred to the Ministry of Health (in 1919), and the Department of Health and Social Security (in 1968). It ceased to exist as a distinct department in 1970, when it merged with the Government Social Survey Department to form the Office of Population Censuses and Surveys.2 Over the course of its life the GRO exercised the following major functions:

Registration of births, deaths and marriages

Prior to 1837 the recording of birth, marriage and death data was a purely ecclesiastical function. Parish registers of baptisms, marriages and burials were instituted in England and Wales in 1538. After 1597 Anglican clergy were required to periodically send copies of baptism, marriage and burial entries to their diocesan registrar. Although Acts of 1754 and 1812 prescribed standard forms of registers, the parish system of registration was always haphazard, and many individuals (especially non-Anglicans) slipped through its net. Nor did it allow for the compilation of accurate demographic statistics on a national basis. These defects led, in 1833, to the appointment of a select committee of the House of Commons which reported in favour of establishing a secular system for recording births, marriages and deaths. Civil registration of births and deaths was introduced into England and Wales by the Births and Deaths Registration Act 1836, and registration of marriages by the Marriage Act 1836 (which also allowed for civil marriage ceremonies). Both Acts came into effect on 1 July 1837. Civil registration at that stage did not extend to Scotland or Ireland, which acquired their own separate systems of registration in 1855 and 1864 respectively.3

The task of enforcing the two Acts was placed on the GRO, which became the centre of a registration system extending down to the local level. Registration districts (each headed by a superintendent registrar) were established, based on the Poor Law Unions created under the Poor Law Amendment Act 1834, and were in turn divided into sub-districts headed by registrars. Superintendent registrars and registrars acted under the direction of the Registrar General, but were appointed by Poor Law Boards of Guardians until 1929, when this responsibility passed to county and county borough councils. Registrars were required to transmit copies of birth, marriage and death entries on a quarterly basis to their superintendent registrar. After being checked, these copies were forwarded to the GRO in London, where national quarterly indexes of births, marriages and deaths were developed (local indexes were also compiled in local register offices). Register entries for births and deaths were based on details supplied to the registrar by the informant. A different system was developed for marriages: the Marriage Act 1836 allowed Anglican, Jewish, Quaker and foreign Protestant congregations to record marriages using a standard form of register, and to send copies of entries to the local registrar on a quarterly basis. Marriages in dissenting congregations and other religious denominations had to be registered through the attendance of a registrar and two witnesses at the ceremony, which had to be conducted in a registered place of worship. This inequality was not removed until the Marriage Act 1898, which allowed other congregations to appoint "authorised persons" to register marriages in the same manner as the Church of England. The registration system was reinforced by the Births and Deaths Registration Act 1874, which transferred the legal responsibility for registering births and deaths from the registrar to the informant. Before then, some parents had avoided registering births by the fact that they could only be prosecuted if they failed to provide details in response to a specific request from the registrar.4

Registration of births, deaths and marriages remained a basic function of the GRO throughout its history, and was inherited by the GRO's successors. The GRO also acquired responsibilities relating to the registration of life events in certain specialised areas. These included custody of registers of births, deaths and marriages in the merchant navy and the Royal Navy (the GRO's responsibility from 1837), registers in respect of British subjects overseas (from 1849), and registers in respect of the armed forces (from 1879) and civil aircraft (from 1949). After 1865, these responsibilities were shared with the Registrars General for Scotland and Ireland. In 1927 an Adopted Children's Register was established by the GRO to record legal adoptions, and a register of stillbirths to record details of stillbirths. The Registrar General was also made responsible for re-registering the births of legitimated persons under the Legitimacy Act 1926. The mechanical processing of birth, marriage and death data using punched cards started in 1911, and was replaced by computerised processing (on the GRO's own IBM 1401 machine) in 1963.5

The Census

Administration of the decennial Census is another essential function which was discharged by the GRO for most of its history, and passed to the GRO's successors. The first census of the UK (excluding Ireland) was conducted in 1801 under the Census Act 1800. The collection of data for this Census, and for the Censuses that followed in 1811, 1821 and 1831, was delegated to parish officials. Each parish submitted summary statistics to John Rickman, an official of the Privy Council who abstracted the data and prepared reports. The creation of the GRO led to the adoption of a different system. Responsibility for conducting the Census and analysing and publishing Census data was transferred to the new Office by the Population Act 1840.

The 1841 Census - the first Census conducted by the GRO - set a pattern which was followed in all subsequent Censuses. Registration sub-districts were divided into enumeration districts, each with a Census enumerator answering to the local registrar. Enumeration was done on a household by household basis by distributing self-completion forms to each household. These were collected by the enumerator who copied the details into his own return, which was sent along with the original forms to the GRO in London for analysis. The 1841 Census was thus the first Census to generate data about individual households, and the first Census for which information about individual households (in the form of the enumerator's returns) is available. Further changes followed in 1851 when questions about the exact age of respondents, their marital status, relationship to the head of household, exact place of birth, and greater details about occupation were introduced. Since then the Census has been conducted by the GRO and its successors every ten years in England and Wales except in 1941, when no census was held. The Census has been on a permanent legal footing since the Census Act 1920, before which each Census was authorised by a separate enactment. A separately administered Irish Census was introduced in 1821; in Scotland the Census was the responsibility of the GRO until 1860, when it became a function of the newly created Registrar General for Scotland.6

Mechanisation of Census data started in 1911 with the introduction of punched cards for the automatic sorting and tabulating of Census returns. Census data was computerised for the first time in 1961, using the Royal Army Pay Corp computer at Winchester. The 1961 Census saw another innovation, with the introduction of sampling: all households were required to complete a short questionnaire, but 10% of households were given a longer, more detailed form.7 Further experimentation with sampling in the Census occurred under the GRO's successor, the OPCS (see 'Office of Population Censuses and Surveys', below).

Other functions

From its inception the GRO was actively involved in the analysis and dissemination of data gathered from the civil registration system and from the decennial Census. This was done through a variety of publications, such as the Annual Reports of the Registrar General (from 1837 onwards), Weekly Returns of deaths and causes of death in London and other major cities (from 1840), Quarterly Returns based on registration data (from 1849), Census Reports, and the Decennial Supplement of Occupational Mortality in England and Wales (from 1855).8 Special surveys were conducted by the GRO on a variety of topics, a role which was explicitly authorised in the Census Act 1920. This permitted the Registrar General "from time to time to collect and publish any statistical information with respect to the number and condition of the population in the interval between one Census and another" (a duty which was reaffirmed in the Population Statistics Act 1938).9 The GRO also had special functions in both World Wars. During the First World War the Registrar General was the central registration authority for the system of national registration introduced in 1915. The GRO played a similar role in 1938-1939 when it enumerated the population to gather data for the National Register, a database used for issuing National Identity Cards and other wartime measures. The National Register was abolished in 1952 but data from it was used to establish the National Health Service Central Register, a central register of NHS patients which was maintained by the GRO and its successors.10

For information on the GRO's Population Statistics Division, see Subdivisions.

Government Social Survey Department (1940-1970)

The Government Social Survey Department originated from the Wartime Social Survey, which was established by the Ministry of Information (MOI) in 1940 to conduct surveys on economic and social topics and on questions relating to wartime morale. It was intended to supplement data from existing surveys of public opinion such as the Gallup Poll, Mass Observation and surveys conducted by the British Institute of Public Opinion. The Social Survey was originally operated by the National Institute of Economic and Social Research on behalf of the MOI, but was brought directly under the control of the MOI in 1941 following public criticism of its activities. Thereafter its role was confined to conducting surveys commissioned by government departments. It carried out surveys on topics such as diet and food consumption, women's activities, shopping, transport and health. In 1944 it began the Survey of Sickness, a study (on behalf of the GRO) of the prevalence of illness in the population, which continued until 1952.

In 1946 the Social Survey was reconstituted as the Social Survey Division of the Central Office of Information. It was reduced to half its size by the Conservative government in 1951, but during the 1950s it became responsible for executing a number of major social studies. These included the National Food Survey and the Family Expenditure Survey (FES), a study of household income and expenditure which was originally intended to provide weights for the retail price index. The FES was first conducted in 1953-54 and was an ongoing function of the Social Survey from 1957. Another ongoing survey was the International Passenger Survey, a survey of travellers which was first conducted by the Social Survey in 1961. Surveys were also organised on a number of other ad hoc topics such as savings, consumer behaviour, housing design, transport problems and telephone services.

Following the recommendations of the Heyworth Committee on Social Studies, the Social Survey became a separate department known as the Government Social Survey Department from 1 April 1967. It was headed by a Treasury Minister, and an inter-departmental committee was established under Treasury chairmanship to advise on its programme of work. It merged with the General Register Office in 1970 and afterwards became the Social Survey Division of the newly formed Office of Population Censuses and Surveys (see 'Office of Population Censuses and Surveys', below).11

Central Statistical Office (1941-1996)

Prior to its merger in 1996 with the Office of Population Censuses and Surveys, to form the Office for National Statistics, the Central Statistical Office (CSO) was the agency concerned with co-ordinating the statistical output of government departments and with producing statistics needed for economic and social policies and planning. Its work focussed primarily on economic and financial statistics (the 1981 White Paper Government Statistical Services, for example, described the CSO as being "responsible for preparing the national economic accounts").12 Population statistics and studies of social attitudes and behaviour were the responsibility of OPCS and its predecessors, the General Register Office and Government Social Survey Department.

The establishment of the CSO was preceded by several abortive attempts to set up a central statistical department. In 1877 a committee of MPs and officials from the Treasury, HM Customs and the Board of Trade was appointed to examine the collection of trade statistics and the organisation of statistical services in government. This committee reported in 1881 in favour of creating a small central statistical department subordinate to the Treasury, as well as a permanent board or commission to supervise and co-ordinate statistical work across government. However, these recommendations were rejected by the then Chancellor of the Exchequer, William Gladstone, on constitutional grounds and because of objections raised by the Board of Trade. A further attempt to establish a Central Statistical Office was made in 1919, when a petition to this effect was presented to the government by a number of statisticians and business figures. A Cabinet committee to examine the collection and presentation of official statistics was appointed, but recommended against the establishment of a CSO when it reported in 1921. Instead a consultative committee of government statistical officers was created, which met occasionally in the 1920s but was generally regarded as ineffective.13

The final impetus to the establishment of the CSO came from the need for better and more co-ordinated government statistics during the Second World War. The CSO's immediate predecessor was the Central Economic Intelligence Service (CEIS) of the War Cabinet Office, which was set up in December 1939 to provide economic and statistical data to the Stamp Survey, a survey of the economic aspects of departments' war planning under the direction of Lord Stamp. The CEIS (later known as the Cabinet Office's Economic Section) had a staff of economists and statisticians. By June 1940 it was also involved in the tasks of advising ministerial committees on economic and related subjects, digesting statistics prepared by departments, and preparing progress reports on how departments were fulfilling ministerial decisions. By that stage it had been joined within the War Cabinet Office by the Prime Minister's Statistical Section headed by Professor F.A. Lindemann. This was Sir Winston Churchill's personal statistical section which Churchill had brought with him from his previous appointment as First Lord of the Admiralty.14

The need to rationalise the gathering of statistics by these Cabinet Office branches and by departments led Churchill to urge the Cabinet Secretary in November 1940 to consolidate the production of "final authoritative working statistics" in a Central Statistical Office. The CSO was accordingly established by a War Cabinet minute of 27 January 1941. This defined its duties as "the collection from government Departments of a regular series of figures on a coherent and well ordered basis which cover the development of our war effort. The Prime Minister has directed that the figures so collected should form an agreed corpus which will be accepted and used without question not only in inter- Departmental discussion, but in the preparation of documents submitted to Ministers for circulation to the War Cabinet and to War Cabinet Committees."15 The CSO was formed out of the statisticians of the Economic Section, which retained its staff of economists. The Stamp Survey was disbanded; the Prime Minister's Statistical Section continued, but most of its statistical data was now provided by the CSO. For the remainder of the War the CSO's primary functions were to act as a conduit for statistics being submitted to the War Cabinet and the Prime Minister's Statistical Section, to digest statistics prepared by departments, to liaise between departments on statistical matters, and to ensure that inadequacies in departments' production of statistics were corrected. It also acted as the agreed channel for statistical information being sent to and from the United States, and as the central body for the collection of statistics from the Dominions and Colonies.16

A report from a committee of the Royal Statistical Society in 1943 recommended that the CSO should be retained after the end of hostilities, and a formal pledge to keep it as part of the Cabinet Office was made by the government in the following year. After 1945 the CSO became heavily involved in analysing the statistics required for economic and social planning, while continuing its function of co-ordinating statistical work across government. Its role was enhanced following the passage of the Statistics of Trade Act 1947. In 1945-47 it was involved with other departments in the development of a Standard Industrial Classification (a classification system for different types of industries), and in 1947-48 the CSO developed a new Index of Industrial Production, which later became one of the main components of the output measure of gross domestic product. A number of new statistical publications were launched by the Office in the post-war period, including the Monthly Digest of Statistics (from 1946), the first National Income and Expenditure Blue Book (from 1952), Economic Trends (from 1953), the first quarterly statistics of national expenditure (in 1957), the first publication of quarterly balance of payments statistics (in 1960), and the first edition of Financial Statistics (in 1962). Responsibility for balance of payments statistics was transferred to the CSO from the Bank of England in 1960.17

Following a review of government statistical services by the House of Commons Estimates Committee in 1966, Sir Claus Moser (Director of the CSO 1967-1978) developed a programme for the reform of government statistics (see 'Government Statistical Service', below), which included a reorganisation of his department. Several new divisions were created, including a Computer and Data Systems Analysis Unit, to promote the computerisation of government statistical services; a Statistical Standards and Classification Unit, to promote uniformity in the use of definitions, concepts and classifications by different departments; a Survey Control Unit, to monitor the demands on suppliers of statistical data; and a Programme Development Unit, to co-ordinate the statistical programmes of departments to establish priorities and ensure the best use of resources. The CSO grew in stature through the role of its Director as head of the newly created Government Statistical Service. During the 1970s the Office came to place a greater emphasis on social statistics, marked by the launch of the publication Social Trends (a compilation of social statistics) in 1970.18

Along with the rest of the Government Statistical Service, the CSO saw its functions and resources reduced following Sir Derek Rayner's review of the provision of government statistics in 1980. The Office's staff shrank from 263 in 1979 to 200 in 1982; there were reductions in methodological research, social policy research, frequency of income distribution statistics and input/output tables; and all work was stopped on wealth distribution. However, by 1986-1988 deficiencies had emerged in the quality of certain key national accounts statistics (especially those concerned with GDP), which led to a Cabinet Office efficiency scrutiny of interdepartmental arrangements for the production of statistics, under Stephen Pickford. The Pickford Review reported in 1988 and recommended an enhanced central role for the CSO. These recommendations resulted in the absorption into the CSO in 1989 of the Business Statistics Office, parts of the Department of Trade and Industry's statistical divisions, and the Department of Employment's responsibilities for the retail prices index and the family expenditure survey. This increased the CSO's size from just under 170 to over 1,000 staff. There was also a shift in emphasis from the interpretation and quality control of official statistics to the gathering of statistics. The CSO was also transferred from the Cabinet Office to the Treasury as a first step towards becoming an Executive Agency. It expanded further in 1990 following a package of improvements to the quality of statistics announced by the Chancellor of the Exchequer. Executive Agency status was achieved in the following year, while 1995 saw the transfer to the CSO of responsibility for labour market statistics from the former Employment Department. The CSO merged with the Office of Population Censuses and Surveys in 1996 to form the Office for National Statistics (see 'Office for National Statistics', below).19

Government Statistical Service (1968- )

The Government Statistical Service (GSS) was created not as a department but as an umbrella organisation to promote better co-ordination and good practice among statisticians in government. Its roots lay in a 1966 report on Government Statistical Services by the House of Commons Estimates Committee, one of whose recommendations was that the Central Statistical Office should play more of a co-ordinating role in the provision of statistical services across government.20 This led Sir Claus Moser to propose the creation of a Government Statistical Service as part of a package of measures for the reform of government statistics, which also included the creation of the Business Statistics Office and the Office of Population Censuses and Surveys, and internal changes within the CSO. The GSS was intended as a compromise between the desire to promote greater central management of statistics, and the desire to maintain the decentralised system of statistical units attached to government departments, which was seen as promoting the more efficient use of statistics.21 Moser's successors as Directors of the CSO continued to be ex-officio Heads of the GSS until 1996, when this responsibility was transferred to the Director of the newly created Office for National Statistics (ONS). The Head of the GSS had no management responsibility for the work of the GSS outside ONS, but "is responsible for promoting the co-ordination and integrity of official statistics across government".22

A major change in the GSS occurred in the 1980s following the review of government statistical services conducted by Sir Derek Rayner in 1980. His report noted that the expenditure of resources on statistics had increased considerably in the 1960s and 1970s (the CSO's spending had grown over 2 1/2 times in real terms since 1965). Rayner recommended that statistical services should be provided in a more streamlined fashion, with greater emphasis on value for money, that the burden on business of completing government surveys should be reduced, that greater use should be made of sampling, and that more should be done to recover the costs of statistical information from commercial users.23 He also stressed (in what came to be known as the "Rayner doctrine") that "[statistical] information should not be collected primarily for publication. It should be collected primarily because government needs it for its own business".24 Sir Derek recommended that the Head of the GSS should be responsible for promoting the efficiency of the GSS, and should have the right of direct access to the Prime Minister where questions concerning the validity and integrity of government statistics were concerned.25

The White Paper announcing the results of the Rayner Review pledged to reduce the Government Statistical Service by about a quarter in terms of staff and administrative costs.26 The 1980s were thus a time of contraction for the GSS. The Rayner doctrine was not eroded until 1991, when the framework document for the launch of the CSO as an Executive Agency stressed the importance of providing quality services to users of the CSO outside as well as inside government. The final break with the Rayner doctrine came in the 1993 White Paper on Open Government, which stressed that "official statistics . . . are collected by government to inform debate, decision-making and research both within government and by the wider community . . . it is the responsibility of government to provide [reliable social and economic statistics] and to maintain public confidence in them".27 Two years later this was followed by the launch of the Government Statistical Service's Official Statistics Code of Practice, which laid down basic guidelines for government statisticians to guarantee their professionalism, responsiveness to the needs of users of statistics, and responsiveness to the needs of data suppliers.28

The management of the GSS was defined in 1996 in the publication Official Statistics: Governance and Consultation. In addition to the Director of the Office for National Statistics as Head of the GSS, the GSS would be managed by a series of inter-departmental committees. These included a Policy and Management Committee, chaired by the Head of the GSS and consisting of other senior members of the GSS, and nine standing sub-committees dealing with particular areas of policy. External consultation was provided by over 40 advisory bodies. The main one was the Statistics Advisory Committee, bringing together the GSS's customers, data suppliers and others to advise the Director of ONS on the work of ONS and on his responsibilities as Head of the GSS.29 In 1998 about 4,700 staff were employed in the GSS, about half in ONS and half in other government departments and agencies.30

Business Statistics Office (1969-1989)

The Business Statistics Office (BSO) was created in 1969 as part of Sir Claus Moser's programme for reforming government statistical services. It was intended to have a central role in gathering statistics from business, and to take over inquiries previously performed by other departments, thereby allowing for better co-ordination in data gathering. The Office was formed within the Board of Trade and was developed out of the Board of Trade's Census Office at Eastcote (it quickly moved to new premises in Newport, Monmouthshire). Its policies were decided by an interdepartmental management committee headed by the Director of the Central Statistical Office. The BSO had 903 staff by 1973, and was involved in carrying on the Board of Trade's census of production; in conducting quarterly and monthly inquiries to provide statistics on the value of output of products characteristic to each industry; and in inquiries about capital investment, stocks, purchases and sales. It also had the aim of developing a central register of businesses which could be used by all departments collecting business statistics. The BSO's resources were reduced following the Rayner Review, while the Thatcher government's emphasis on reducing the burden imposed on business by statistical surveys led the Office to place greater emphasis on sampling. On 31 July 1989 the BSO was absorbed into the Central Statistical Office, in line with the recommendations of the Pickford Review (see 'Central Statistical Office', above).31

Office of Population Censuses and Surveys (1970-1996)

The Office of Population Censuses and Surveys (OPCS) came into being in May 1970 through the merger of the General Register Office and the Government Social Survey Department. It inherited the GRO's responsibilities for civil registration, the Census, population statistics and the NHS Central Register, and it inherited the Social Survey Department's function of carrying out surveys of opinion and behaviour (the Department became OPCS's Social Survey Division). It also provided a secretariat for the parliamentary Boundary Commissions for England and Wales. OPCS's functions were described in 1974 as "the regulation of civil marriages, the registration of births, marriages and deaths in England and Wales, and control of the registration services; the analysis of vital, medical and demographic statistics and publication of reports thereon; the periodic census of the population; [and] research into the attitudes and circumstances of the general public or of particular groups of individuals".32 Its role was affirmed by the report of the Population Panel in 1972, which highlighted the importance of population data for the work of government departments.33

OPCS built on the work of its predecessors, for example by developing the General Household Survey, an annual survey of 15,000 households (reduced to 12,500 in 1984), launched in 1970, which gathered data on population and family topics, housing, employment, education, health, income and special subjects. Another major innovation was the Labour Force Survey, a survey of employment and economic activity which was conducted biennially on behalf of the European Community from 1973 until 1984, and annually thereafter. The 1971 and 1981 Censuses also saw experimentation with longitudinal sampling, in which data on individuals with certain birth dates was matched between the two Censuses to allow for the measurement of changes in individuals' circumstances over time.34 The OPCS had a staff of 1,100 and a cost of 12.8 million pounds per year in 1979.35 In 1996 it was united with the Central Statistical Office to become the Office for National Statistics.

For information on OPCS's Medical Statistics Division and its successors, see Subdivisions.

Office for National Statistics (1996- )

On 1 April 1996 the Office of Population Censuses and Surveys and the Central Statistical Office were joined to form a new agency, the Office for National Statistics. This merger was intended to produce three main benefits:

• To centralise the collection and primary analysis of statistics, while allowing advice and assistance to policy makers to continue to be decentralised in departments. It was hoped that this would make it easier for the Director of ONS, as Head of the Government Statistical Service, "to influence standards, classifications and practices across the GSS".
• It was intended that "an office encompassing a much wider range of statistical activities would have a more influential role in establishing statistical priorities. As a result, management and co-ordination of the GSS would be easier. Also, there would be a firmer basis for identifying gaps in national statistics and realising opportunities to fill them."
• It was also thought that "the size and range of skills in such an office would make it feasible and easier to bring together the massive amount of data that exists in government, to relate them in a meaningful way, and to make them available across government and to the community in general".36

These benefits were highlighted in proposals for the merger of OPCS and the CSO which were made by Bill McLennan, then Head of the GSS, in August 1994. An announcement that the merger would go ahead was made by the Prime Minister in September 1995. This followed a consultation period and a decision to move the CSO's and OPCS's London staff to a single site (Drummond Gate, Pimlico).37

The functions of the OPCS and the CSO were brought together in the new Office. According to The 31st Civil Service Year Book 1998/99, "ONS collects, compiles and provides a wide range of statistical information including UK national accounts, and population estimates and projections. ONS also carries out research studies on behalf of Government departments concerned with social and economic issues. The Registrar General for England and Wales is responsible for the administration of the registration service and the taking of the decennial census of population. The Registrar General also maintains at Southport a central register of persons on doctor's lists [the NHS Central Register], for the purposes of the National Health Service. The central management of the Government Statistical Service is also carried out by ONS".38 ONS became an Executive Agency accountable to the Chancellor of the Exchequer. Its relationship with the Chancellor and its governance were defined in a Framework Document, which also set out concordats with four government departments which had special relationships with ONS's predecessors (the Treasury, Department of Health, Department for Education and Employment and Department of Trade and Industry).39 In 1998 ONS was headed by a joint Director and Registrar General (Dr Tim Holt), and was organised into six major business groups:

• Business Statistics Group (statistics relating to production, distribution and services, earnings, employment, product prices and sales, overseas trade and finance)
• Macro-Economic Statistics and Analysis Group (balance of payments, gross domestic product, national expenditure and income, consumer prices and inflation)
• Socio-Economic Statistics and Analysis Group (social and regional statistics, labour force and labour market statistics)
• Census, Population and Health Group (the decennial Census, demographic statistics, mortality and health)
• Survey and Statistical Services Group (social surveys, methodology, survey control, marketing)
• Administrative Services and Registration Group (central support services, the civil registration service, the NHS Central Register)40

In conjunction with the National Archives, ONS ran the Family Records Centre in London, providing a central point of public access to indexes of the records of the civil registration of births, deaths and marriages in England and Wales, and to copies of available Census returns.

General Register Office: Population Statistics Division

The work of the General Register Office was divided into five Divisions which included the Population Statistics Division. The Division's remit covered a wide range of demographic statistics, including national, regional and local estimates of population; birth, marriage and fertility statistics; and population distribution by sex and age. The Population Statistics Division was responsible for the creation of the Primary Births dataset (see Records in NDAD). The Vital Statistics Output Branch of the Population and Vital Statistics Division of ONS is now responsible for the Primary Births datasets.

Office of Population Censuses and Surveys and successors: Medical Statistics Division and successors

With the creation of OPCS in 1970, a Medical Statistics Division was established with functions relating to the classification and analysis of causes of death and morbidity, hospital in-patient studies, cancer registration, abortions, congenital anomalies and epidemiological surveys. It appears to have been formed out of the General Register Office's Medical Statistics Division, which had similar functions and personnel.41 The Historic Mortality Data Files database is believed to have been developed by Medical Statistics Division in the period after 1979 (see Records in NDAD).

The Civil Service Year Book indicates that there was little change in the division until 1992 when its functions were split between two new divisions: Health Statistics Division ("mortality and public health; cancer, environmental monitoring and asbestos; hospital and GP morbidity; medical research; Longitudinal Study; and NHS Market Focus Group"), and Medical Support and Disease Classification Division ("classification and analysis of mortality and morbidity data").42 By 1996 the latter had become Medical Support Division and included a Data Services branch, with functions relating to the receipt, processing, database creation and management of various types of health, vital statistics and mortality data. Following the creation of the Office for National Statistics in 1996, the functions of Health Statistics and Medical Support Divisions were apparently divided between Demography and Health Division and Population and Vital Statistics Division, both within ONS's Census, Population and Health Group.43

Demography and Health Division was apparently responsible for the Historic Mortality Data Files database when the first dataset for the latter was transferred to NDAD by ONS in 1998. Demography and Health Division appears to have become Health and Care Division in 2001, located in ONS's Social Statistics Directorate (the name of the Directorate subsequently changed to Social Directorate (2002), and Economic and Social Reporting Directorate (2003)). Health and Care Division was responsible for Historic Mortality Data Files (renamed "Twentieth Century Mortality Files") when the second dataset was transferred to NDAD in 2004.44

Primary Births Datasets (CRDA/5)

This is a series of datasets produced by the Office of Population Censuses and Surveys and the Office for National Statistics. The datasets include data on the number of births in England and Wales for each year, date of registration for both live and still births, district/sub-district Registrar's Office, sex, legitimacy, date and place of birth. They also include confidential data relating to fertility and social trends. NDAD has four datasets for Primary Births (1963-1964 and 1974-1975), those from 1963-1964 being the first two datasets for Primary Births produced on computer. See the Series Catalogue for CRDA/5 for further information.

Historic Mortality Data Files (CRDA/20)

Datasets of population and mortality data which allow for the calculation of national death rates in England and Wales by age, sex and cause of death for the period after 1900. The two datasets transferred to NDAD cover the years 1901-1992 and 1901-1995, and include data on the number of deaths in England and Wales by year, sex, age group and cause of death, and population estimates by year, sex and age group. The database was originally developed by OPCS's Medical Statistics Division in the period after 1979 (see Subdivisions). The datasets were transferred by ONS's Demography and Health Division (in 1998) and its successor, Health and Care Division (2004), both of which were descended from Medical Statistics Division. See the Series Catalogue for CRDA/20 for further information.

Company Accounts Analysis for the period 1981-85 (CRDA/41)

This dataset is an analysis of the published annual accounts of companies (industrial, commercial and independent) registered in Great Britain. The analysis was prepared by the Business Statistics Office on behalf of the Department of Trade and Industry, using published annual accounts filed at Companies House in Cardiff. The dataset (of which NDAD holds a snapshot for accounting years 1981-1985) was used in the preparation of Business Monitor MA3: Company Finance, an annual periodical which published an analysis of the figures from the balance sheet, income and appropriation account, and sources and uses of funds of a representative sample of company groups and companies. See the Series Catalogue for CRDA/41 for further information. For an administrative history of the DTI, see Administrative Histories.

Consumer and Retail Prices Index (CRDA/61)

The series comprises data derived from the two main consumer price indices in the United Kingdom: the Consumer Prices Index (CPI) and the Retail Prices Index (RPI), and historic RPI data 1947-2004. Consumer Price indices are important indicators of how the UK economy is performing. The indices are used by the government, business and society in general. The indices can affect interest rates, tax allowances, wages, state benefits, pensions, maintenance, contracts and many other payments. The CPI and the RPI are the two main measures of inflation. The indices represent the average change in prices across a wide range of consumer purchases. See the Series Catalogue for further information.

NDAD hold three datasets in this series. The Retail Prices Index snapshot 1987-2003 (CRDA/61/DS/1) measures the average change from month to month in the prices of consumer goods and services purchased in the UK. See the Dataset Catalogue for further information. The Consumer Prices Index snapshot 1988-2003 (CRDA/61/DS/2) is in essence the same basic price data as the Retail Prices Index (RPI), but differs from it in the range of goods and services covered, the people whose expenditure is covered by the weighting, the formulae used to calculate the price changes, and the classification of goods and services. See the Dataset Catalogue for further information. The Historic Retail Prices Index 1947 to 2004 (CRDA/61/DS/3) is an analysis of trends in inflation since 1947, as measured by the Retail Prices Index (RPI) See the Dataset Catalogue for further information.

The National Archives holds records of the General Register Office, the Government Social Survey Department and the Office of Population Censuses and Surveys primarily in RG classes, and records of the Central Statistical Office primarily in CAB classes.45 A number of datasets generated by the Office for National Statistics and its predecessors have been deposited in the UK Data Archive.

For further information on the Office for National Statistics and its predecessors, we suggest that you visit the National Statistics web site or contact one of ONS's two libraries: The Library, Office for National Statistics, 1 Drummond Gate, Pimlico, London SW1V 2QQ (0207 533 6262); and The Library, Office for National Statistics, Government Buildings, Cardiff Road, Newport, South Wales NP9 1XG (01633 812973); e-mail: info@ons.gov.uk. Both libraries are open to the public.

1. Statistics, A Matter of Trust: A Consultation Document, Cm 3882 (London: Stationary Office, 1998), sections 2.2, 2.14, Annex A (http://www.official-documents.co.uk/documents/ons/govstat/); Government Statistical Service web site, page on "How GSS is Run" (http://www.statistics.gov.uk/aboutgss/run.htm), consulted on 11 Nov 1998.

2. Public Record Office, Public Record Office Current Guide (Kew: Public Record Office, 1996), part 1, section 119/1/2; Muriel Nissel, People Count: A History of the General Register Office (London: HMSO, 1987), p. 10-11.

3. Public Record Office, Public Record Office Current Guide, part 1, sections 119/1/1 and 119/1/2; David Hey, The Oxford Companion to Local and Family History (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996), pp. 95-96, 341-342.

4. Public Record Office, Public Record Office Current Guide, part 1, section 119/1/2; Nissel, People Count, pp. 12-29.

5. Public Record Office, Public Record Office Current Guide, part 1, section 119/1/2; Nissel, People Count, p. 28; General Register Office, Registrar General's Statistical Review for England and Wales for the Year 1963, Part III, Commentary [reprint] [London: General Register Office, 1966?], p. 13.

6. Hey, The Oxford Companion to Local and Family History, pp. 72-74; Nissel, People Count, pp. 50-67.

7. Ibid., pp. 66, 79-80.

8. Ibid., pp. 37, 102, 112.

9. Ibid., p. 44-45.

10. Ibid., pp. 75-77; Public Record Office, Public Record Office Current Guide, part 1, section 119/1/2.

11. Ibid., part 1, section 120/1/1; Nissel, People Count, pp. 86-90.

12. Government Statistical Services, Cmnd. 8236 (London: HMSO, 1981), p. 1.

13. Reg Ward and Ted Doggett, Keeping Score: The First Fifty Years of the Central Statistical Office (London: Central Office of Information/Central Statistical Office, 1991), pp. 14-17, 20-21.

14. Ibid., pp. 24-30; Public Record Office, Public Record Office Current Guide, part 1, section 102/6/3.

15. Ward and Doggett, Keeping Score, p. 30. This quote is a brief extract from the full text. Please refer also to the original text.

16. Ibid., pp. 36-43; Public Record Office, Public Record Office Current Guide, part 1, section 102/6/3.

17. Ward and Doggett, Keeping Score, pp. 49-63.

18. Ibid., pp. 67-77.

19. Ibid., pp. 81-109; Statistics, A Matter of Trust: A Consultation Document, Cm 3882, section 2.5 and Annex A; Public Record Office, Public Record Office Current Guide, part 1, section 102/6/3.

20. Fourth Report from the Estimates Committee, Session 1966-67: Government Statistical Services (London: HMSO, 1966), p. xliii.

21. Ward and Doggett, Keeping Score, p. 70.

22. Statistics, A Matter of Trust: A Consultation Document, Cm 3882, section 2.12.

23. Ibid., Annex A; Ward and Doggett, Keeping Score, pp. 81-85; Government Statistical Services, Cmnd. 8236, pp. 13-18.

24. Ibid., p. 15.

25. Ibid., p. 17.

26. Ibid., p. 2.

27. Statistics, A Matter of Trust: A Consultation Document, Cm 3882, Annex A.

28. Ibid., Annex A; Home Office Research Development and Statistics Directorate web site, page on "The Government Statistical Service" (http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/gssf.htm), consulted on 13 Nov 1998.

29. Government Statistical Service web site, page on "How GSS is Run" (http://www.statistics.gov.uk/aboutgss/run.htm), consulted on 11 Nov 1998; John Pullinger, "The Creation of the Office for National Statistics", p. 18.

30. Statistics, A Matter of Trust: A Consultation Document, Cm 3882, section 2.7.

31. Ward and Doggett, Keeping Score, pp. 123-129.

32. Civil Service Department, The Civil Service Year Book 1974 (London: HMSO, 1974), col. 508; Public Record Office, Public Record Office Current Guide, part 1, section 121/1/1.

33. Nissel, People Count, p. 137-138.

34. Ibid., pp. 92-93, 80-81, 83-84.

35. Government Statistical Services, p. 8.

36. Statistics, A Matter of Trust, Annex A; Office for National Statistics web site, "Welcome to the Office for National Statistics" (http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons.htm) consulted on 11 November 1998.

37. Pullinger, "The Creation of the Office for National Statistics", pp. 12-15.

38. Cabinet Office, The 31st Civil Service Year Book 1998/99 (London: Stationery Office, 1998), col. 583.

39. Pullinger, "The Creation of the Office for National Statistics", p. 18.

40. Ibid., cols. 583-600.

41. British Imperial Calendar and Civil Service List (London: HMSO, 1969), col. 258; British Imperial Calendar and Civil Service List (London: HMSO, 1971), entry for "Office of Population Censuses and Surveys".

42. Cabinet Office, Civil Service Yearbook 1992: August Edition (London: HMSO, 1992), cols. 484-485.

43. Civil Service Year Book 1996 (London: HMSO, 1996), cols. 533-534; Civil Service Year Book 1997 (London: Stationery Office, 1997), cols. 530-531.

44. Cabinet Office, The 35th Civil Service Year Book (London: Stationery Office, 2000), p. 278; Cabinet Office, The 36th Civil Service Year Book (London: Stationery Office, 2001), p. 233; Cabinet Office, The 38th Civil Service Year Book (London: Stationery Office, 2002), p. 248; Cabinet Office, The 39th Civil Service Year Book (London: Stationery Office, 2003), p. 246; transfer forms for datasets CRDA/20/DS/1 and CRDA/20/DS/2.

45. Public Record Office, Public Record Office Current Guide (Kew: Public Record Office, 1996).