Office for National Statistics and Predecessors: Social Survey: Registered Papers...

RG 40

1940-2011

This hybrid series contains both digital records and registered paper files of the Social Survey relating to surveys covering a wide range of subjects. They relate to various aspects of taking surveys: correspondence between the initiating departments and the Social Survey, financial sanctions, correspondence between research officers, instructions for interviewers, coding and sampling. Files relating to the administration of surveys produced before 1946 have not survived, though RG 40/142-144 contain questionnaires and instructions for early surveys. The series also includes files relating to the administration and policy of Social Survey Division.

References for born-digital records are automatically generated and display a 'Z' after a forward slash, which distinguish them from traditional references allocated to paper and digitised records.

Records of the Ministry of Information are in:

Public Record(s)

English

• Central Office of Information, Social Survey Division, 1946-1967
• Government Social Survey Department, 1967-1970
• Ministry of Information, 1939-1946
• Office for National Statistics, 1996-1996
• Office of Population Censuses and Surveys, Labour Force Survey, 1970-1990
• Office of Population Censuses and Surveys, Social Survey Division, 1971-1996

772 paper files and digital records

Open unless otherwise stated

From 1996 Office for National Statistics

From 1980 Office of Population Censuses and Surveys

Series is accruing

In April 1940 a Wartime Social Survey was established by the Ministry of Information, initially working under the auspices of the National Institute of Economic and Social Research but from 1941 directly under the Ministry. The unit was used to conduct surveys into social and economic questions, particularly public attitudes to war measures and public morale, in association with the Home Intelligence Division of that department and on behalf of other government departments. Special series of surveys, such as, studies for the Economic Information Unit of the Treasury, consumer including household budget and family expenditure surveys for the Central Statistical Office and the Ministry of Labour and National Service and its successors, and national food surveys for the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries.

From 1946, this work was carried out by the Social Survey Division of the Central Office of Information. In 1967, the division became a separate department known as the Government Social Survey Department, responsible to Treasury ministers.

On 11 May 1970 the the Government Social Survey Department was merged with the General Register Office (GRO) to become the Social Survey Division of the new Office of Population Censuses and Surveys. This organisation was responsible for the census, registration of births, deaths and marriages and the regulation of civil marriages, and the publication and analysis of medical and demographic statistics. It also conducted research into attitudes and circumstances of the general public and of particular groups on behalf of government departments, royal commissions etc. It was responsible for the General Household Survey from 1970.

In 1996, the Office of Population Censuses and Surveys was succeeded by the Office for National Statistics. Its responsibilities include social surveys covering subjects ranging from housing and equalities to international travel.