Central Statistical Office, UK
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The Central Statistical Office (CSO) was a British government department charged with the collection and publication of economic statistics for the
United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...
. It preceded the
Office for National Statistics The Office for National Statistics (ONS; ) is the executive office of the UK Statistics Authority, a non-ministerial department which reports directly to the Parliament of the United Kingdom, UK Parliament. Overview The ONS is responsible fo ...
.


Establishment of the CSO

During the
Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, the
Prime Minister A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...
,
Winston Churchill Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill (30 November 1874 – 24 January 1965) was a British statesman, military officer, and writer who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945 (Winston Churchill in the Second World War, ...
directed the Cabinet Secretary, Sir Edward Bridges (later Lord Bridges), to advise him on how a central statistical office could be created in the Prime Minister's office in order to consolidate and issue authoritative working statistics. Following consideration, a formal announcement was made to establish the CSO on 27 January 1941 with the purpose of handling the descriptive statistics required for the war effort and developing national income accounts. Shortly afterward, Harry Campion (later Sir Harry Campion), a member of the Central Economic Information Service in the Cabinet Office, was appointed director. After the war there was an expansion in the work of official statisticians resulting from the aim of managing the economy through controlling government income and expenditure using an integrated system of
national accounts National accounts or national account systems (NAS) are the implementation of complete and consistent accounting Scientific technique, techniques for measuring the economic activity of a nation. These include detailed underlying measures that ...
and in 1962, comprehensive financial statistics were published for the first time.


Development of the CSO

Following Sir Harry Campion's retirement in March 1967, Claus Moser (later Lord Moser), a professor of statistics at the
London School of Economics The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), established in 1895, is a public research university in London, England, and a member institution of the University of London. The school specialises in the social sciences. Founded ...
, was appointed director. Moser had the task of implementing proposals made by the House of Commons Estimates Committee in 1966, including the setting up of the Business Statistics Office to provide a centralised system of obtaining information from industry and the Office for Population, Censuses and Surveys to collect information from individuals and households through programmes of censuses, surveys and registers. He made major improvements in the area of social statistics in close partnership with the Office of Population Censuses and Surveys and paid particular attention to the development of the CSO's role of co-ordinating the statistical activities of individual government departments and the development of the Government Statistical Service (GSS), of which he became the head in 1968. After eleven years of statistical development and reorganisation, Moser resigned on 1 August 1978. The third director of the CSO was John Boreham (later Sir John Boreham), Moser's deputy.


The Rayner Review

In 1979, a new government came into office with a review of the CSO and the Government Statistical Service as an early part of its policy of reducing the size of the
Civil Service The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil service personnel hired rather than elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leadership. A civil service offic ...
. This review, conducted by Sir, later Lord Derek Rayner and known as the Rayner Review, was published in a government white paper in April 1981 and recommended that 'information should not be collected primarily for publication (but) primarily because government needs it for its own business'.Great Britain, Privy Council Office (1981) Government Statistical Services, ''Report of the Rayner Review'', London: HMSO. The Government accepted this recommendation and as a result, the CSO was cut by around 25% but continued to produce the same range of economic statistics.


Expansion of the CSO

After 35 years in the Government Statistical Service, Sir John Boreham retired on 31 July 1985 and was succeeded by Jack Hibbert, who became the fourth director of the CSO. During 1986 and 1987, quality problems with the economics statistics produced by the CSO, due partly to the effects of deregulation and to changes to the structure of the economy, became apparent. A review conducted by Stephen Pickford made a number of recommendations for further research and more significantly, recommended greater centralisation of work on economic statistics. Consequently, the Business Statistics Office, most of the two statistics divisions responsible for data on imports and exports at the Department of Trade and Industry, and the statistics division responsible for the Retail Prices Index at the
Department of Employment The secretary of state for employment was a position in the Cabinet of the United Kingdom. In , it was merged with secretary of state for education to make the secretary of state for education and employment. In , the employment functions were h ...
were merged with the CSO in 1989. An improvement programme followed in 1990 at the request of the then
Chancellor of the Exchequer The chancellor of the exchequer, often abbreviated to chancellor, is a senior minister of the Crown within the Government of the United Kingdom, and the head of HM Treasury, His Majesty's Treasury. As one of the four Great Offices of State, t ...
,
John Major Sir John Major (born 29 March 1943) is a British retired politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of the Conservative Party from 1990 to 1997. Following his defeat to Ton ...
, which focused on the national accounts and the balance of payments. In November 1991 the CSO was launched as an
executive agency An executive agency is a part of a government department that is treated as managerially and budgetarily separate, to carry out some part of the executive functions of the United Kingdom government, Scottish Government, Welsh Government or No ...
, detached from the
Cabinet Office The Cabinet Office is a Departments of the Government of the United Kingdom, ministerial department of the Government of the United Kingdom. It is responsible for supporting the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, prime minister and Cabinet ...
, which helped to put focus on the quality of service provided and gave an opportunity to restate publicly the arrangements to ensure the integrity of official statistics.


Creation of the Office for National Statistics

On 1 April 1996, the CSO merged with the Office of Population Censuses and Surveys (OPCS) to form the
Office for National Statistics The Office for National Statistics (ONS; ) is the executive office of the UK Statistics Authority, a non-ministerial department which reports directly to the Parliament of the United Kingdom, UK Parliament. Overview The ONS is responsible fo ...
(ONS) under a single director, Professor Tim Holt.


References


Bibliography

* Reg Ward and Ted Doggett, ''Keeping Score: The First Fifty Years of the Central Statistical Office'', Central Statistical Office, 1991. . * W. Rudoe, 'Obituary: Sir Harry Campion, 1905–96'. ''
Journal of the Royal Statistical Society The ''Journal of the Royal Statistical Society'' is a peer-reviewed scientific journal of statistics. It comprises three series and is published by Oxford University Press for the Royal Statistical Society. History The Statistical Society of ...
''. Series A (Statistics in Society), Vol. 160, No. 1 (1997), pp. 148–151. {{Authority control Government agencies established in 1941 Organizations disestablished in 1996 Office for National Statistics
United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...
Defunct departments of the Government of the United Kingdom 1941 establishments in the United Kingdom Statistical organisations in the United Kingdom 1996 disestablishments in the United Kingdom