PARLIAMENTARY EARLY DAY MOTION
RELEASE OF 1911 CENSUS (22 March 2004)

That this House notes that the average closure period for pre-1911 UK decennial population Census records is 80 years and that informants were not guaranteed that the 1911 Census records would be closed for 100 years and that the release of the 1911 Census Online for England and Wales in 2004-05 would be likely to generate between ú10m and ú40m in revenue before the scheduled release date of 2012; and urges the Lord Chancellor and the Registrar General to use their existing powers, under section 5(1) of the Public Records Act 1958, to arrange for the early release of the 1911 Census Online, thus making the most of a golden opportunity to generate very substantial income between 2004 and 2012 from those records and facilitate genealogical research worldwide.

Sponsored by:
Mr Alistair Carmichael (Liberal Democrat)