§ Mr. Staintonasked the Secretary of State for Social Services whether, for the benefit of genealogical research and of people interested in tracing their own family, he will consider authorising, subject to suitable safeguards the release of information from censuses more recent than 1871.
§ Sir K. JosephPublic access to individual census returns less than 100 years old cannot in any circumstances be allowed. I am, however, prepared to agree that—subject in each instance to the consent of the person concerned or that of one of his direct descendants—researchers may be informed of the age and place of birth of individual people as recorded in the less recent censuses. This decision applies to age and place of358W birth only and only to censuses prior to and including that of 1901. It will be necessary to make a charge for this service, approximating to the cost of providing it.