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The History of the Government Statistical Service

The concept of a 'Government Statistical Service' was first conceived in 1968 by Claus (now Lord) Moser - the then Director of the Central Statistical Office. His idea was to coordinate the work of official statisticians across government. In the same year, he was the first person appointed as Head of the GSS.

From the very beginning the GSS has been a 'virtual' or 'imagined' community as it does not exist legally, has no formal institutional structure and is not even mentioned in the Statistics and Registration Service Act.

Nevertheless, it is a vibrant community which has been shaped by its history and which has a real sense of identity, as well as a collective consciousness and common energy. The ties that bind the GSS stem from a combination of factors including:

• the sense of a common descent inspired by standard recruitment procedures
• a common vocabulary
• the mutual support and professional discipline which comes from observing a common set of values and ideals derived from the GSS Code of Practice
•  the almost daily cross-pollination of thought and idea generated by the GSS committee system and
• the GSS convention of cross-government job moves

All these factors have combined over the years to create a powerful force for 'joined-up' government.

Moser's original concept now forms the basis of the much wider UK statistical system operating today. The GSS embraces a core of professional statisticians and other analysts, as well as their support staff, who are spread across some 41 different government organisations and who, together, are responsible for the collection, production, analysis and dissemination of a vast range of official statistics. The boundaries of the GSS were recently extended beyond the Civil Service to include employees of the Information Centre for Health and Social Care which was established in 2005 as a Special Health Authority within the National Health Service. All members of the GSS are ultimately responsible to the Head of the GSS, through their own departmental Head of Profession for Statistics. Professional statisticians form an inner core to the wider GSS in the sense that their work and careers are centrally co-ordinated by the ONS.

The GSS was the first of several similar professional communities established within the Civil Service - the others being the GES (Government Economic Service), the GSR (Government Social Research) service, and the GORS (Government Operational Research Service). Each of these groups have their own history, culture and governance arrangements but they are increasingly working together to develop the role of 'analysts' within government. Many GSS 'posts' are now filled by staff who regard themselves as members of these other professional groups rather than the GSS. However, their work within the GSS requires them to conform to the National Statistician's Code of Conduct for the GSS - currently in the making.