Just for clarity, the details supplied - accurately - by Guy Etchells applies solely to the England and Wales Census. The Scottish census has never been transferred into a public repository, and so remains under the previous legal restrictions, further enshrined under the Scotland Act, and cannot be released early. Gordon Johnson.

2009/12/8 Gordon Johnson <gordon@kinhelp.co.uk> wrote: Just for clarity, the details supplied - accurately - by Guy Etchells > applies solely to the England and Wales Census. The Scottish census has > never been transferred into a public repository, and so remains under the > previous legal restrictions, further enshrined under the Scotland Act, and > cannot be released early. > ___________________________________ Hi Gordon I think the last word in your posting - "early" - is redundant as it suggests that there is some specified time-limit. The Scotland's People website FAQs does state that Census "Records may only be inspected after 100 years" but I think this is not necessarily the true state of the legislation - unless there is an amendment I can't find [not unlikely!!] As I read the 1920 Act and the 1991 Amendment, and Guy stressed this, there was NO date for the release of the Census data for any Census taken after 1920. It is now open to the Registrar-General of Scotland to move to insert a provision to release the data. Whether that has been done is obscure to me - I can't bear to try to plough through the various annual publications from Holyrood on the matter!! I believe the 1931 Census records were destroyed in the war and there was no Census in 1941. So in ten years we [or our successors] may be doing this all over again and then there will be a gap of thirty years before it is likely to be revisited. Given the determination of the GROS to not release Scottish 1911 before 2011 despite the decison in Whitehall, and the no-release-date provision for 1921 and later, perhaps we should start agitating now for a release date to be enacted?? -- Best wishes Ray ********************************************************** >From Ray Hennessy Forenames website: www.whatsinaname.net Preferred Email address: ray@whatsinaname.net Hints for Scotland's People at http://bit.ly/WIAN-SCP **********************************************************