Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps the Government is taking to support the digitisation of (a) census records and (b) other national archives.

On 6 January 2022, the 1921 Census for England and Wales was launched by Findmypast in partnership with The National Archives, following the transfer of the records from the Office for National Statistics. It was the largest transcription and digitisation project ever completed by The National Archives, consisting of more than 30,000 bound volumes of original documents stored on almost one linear mile of shelving.

The National Archives actively seeks to publish digitised content if it is not being published through partners. The Department for Culture, Media & Sport also assists the wider archive sector in this area by enabling organisations to promote their own content via its ‘Manage Your Collections’ service. Furthermore, The National Archives actively targets philanthropic and grant funding to increase the availability of collections through digitisation, which align with HM Government’s strategic and policy priorities.