Why no population register in peacetime? Explaining Britain’s difficult decisions, 1943-1969

ABSTRACT

Although some influential officials saw value in it during peacetime, 1950s British governments decided to allow the national register and identity card wartime scheme to lapse without replacement. Scholars have not satisfactorily explained why they did so. This article argues that neither the surveillance imperatives for tracking citizens nor ‘joined-up government’ aspirations for service integration nor the limits of analogue systems were the decisive considerations. The article draws upon a very extensive study of the full range of files from all the departments of state involved in the decision-making process in Whitehall in the post-war years, to reconstruct in much greater detail than has been attempted before, just what the main considerations were and how the inter-departmental battles were fought over them, which resulted in the discontinuation of the wartime scheme and the decision to reject subsequent proposals to introduce a fresh one. In particular, it traces the crucial role of financial as well as of organisational imperatives, which are neglected in the standard surveillance, welfare improvement and technological explanations.

KEYWORDS:

• National population register
• Interdepartmental relations in British government
• Identity cards
• Transition from war to peace
• Citizen numbering systems

Acknowledgments

Professor Bellamy completed the manuscript of this article five days before her death on 25 May 2017. After Professor Bellamy’s death, this manuscript was prepared for publication, the referencing of the archival sources completed, and amendments made in response to suggestions from two anonymous reviewers for this journal, by Professor Perri 6 of Queen Mary University of London. Professor 6 is most grateful to the editors of the journal for their support and guidance on submission and to the two anonymous reviewers for their most helpful suggestions for improvement in the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

The author had no conflicts of interest.

Notes

1. Office (2002), Entitlement Cards and Identity Fraud; Office (2003), Identity cards. The Next Steps; Office (2004), Legislation on Identity Cards; Office (2006), Action Plan for National Identity Scheme. The best account is Whitley and Hosein, Global Challenges for Identity Politics.

2. Higgs, The Information State in England; Higgs, Identifying the English.

3. Agar, The Government Machine.

4. Agar, The Government Machine, pp 123–137; Elliot, ‘An Early Experiment in National Identity Cards’, 145–176 discusses proposals for a permanent register as well as the politics of the wartime register.

5. The main exception is: Dovey (1986) ‘Why National Registration Had to Go’, 459–62. Dovey was co-Secretary to the inter-departmental committee on The Future of National Registration, 1949–50. Philip Redfern, who was Chief Statistician at the Department of Education and Science in the 1960s, alludes to these episodes in his ‘Population Registers; some Administrative Pros and Cons’, 14–16; ‘A Population Register of Identity Card for 1992’, 511; and ‘An Alternative View of the 2001 Census 222–3. See also Agar, Government Machine, 353–5.

6. 6 and Bellamy (2016).

7. Bellamy (2019).

8. Lyon and Zureik, Surveillance, privacy and the new technology, in Lyon and Zureik, 1–20, review a range of surveillance theories including those inspired by Foucault’s disciplinary view of state power: see also Lyon, Surveillance after September 11.

9. Although Lyon, 1994, The electronic eye, recognised continuity in the age of electronic computing from visual surveillance and manual files, 1996, and Lyon (2003), lean towards the view that electronic technologies brought about a fundamental and qualitative change. See Bellamy and Taylor (1998), for an extended critique of this claim.

10. Hamilton-Farrell to Vivian, 4 January 1944, TNA RG48/2297.

11. Vivian to Hamilton-Farrell, 20 January 1944, TNA RG48/2297.

12. Vivian to Maxwell, Home Office, 26 September 1944, TNA HO45/25014.

13. Vivian, The future of national registration, TNA HO45/25014.

14. ibid., para 4.

15. Bellamy, (2019).

16. Sir Sylvanus Percival Vivian (SPV), The Future of National Registration, 26 September 1944, TNA HO45/25014: 18.

17. Memorandum by SPV on the National Registration Scheme, 1 July 1915, CAB37/131 and RG28/1.

18. Bellamy, Administering Central-Local Relations, 252ff.

19. Draft report of sub committee, p.1: 9 April 1918, RG28.4.

20. Minutes of the 4^th Meeting of the Man Power Committee, 12 May 1938, CAB57/27.

21. Note by the Registrar-General, to sub-committee to Consider Questions Connected with the Preparation and Maintenance of a National Register, 22 December 1936, CAB57/6.

22. Report of the Registrar-General’s Sub-committee, 9 January 1937, CAB57/21.

23. SPV, ‘The future of national registration’, 26 September 1944, HO45/25014.

24. See e.g. T222/570, also T222/591–6.

25. Jefferies to Armstrong 25 June 1948. T222/436. Much of this comes out clearly in correspondence between Treasury O&M and the GRO on the CNRO report discussed below, June 1948 in RG28/153.

26. Hamilton-Farrell to Vivian, 4 January 1943, RG48/2297.

27. Murdoch minutes of meeting, 27 September 1946, RG48/2297.

28. Jefferies to North, 31 December 1947, RG28/153.

29. Horn to Ross, internal GRO, 21 January 1948. RG28/153.

30. Jefferies to Simpson, Treasury O&M Division, 25 June 1948, T222/436.

31. e.g., in revised report, 4 June 1948, RG28/153. Also Ross’s notes for discussion, 24 June 1948, RG 28/153. Jefferies’ view, however, was that the tracing services of a register were of little importance compared to its support for rationing and the administration of social services, because the police and security services would simply find other sources. Notes of meeting between GRO and Treasury O&M, 21 and 27 July 1948, RG28/153.

32. e.g., notes of meeting, GRO and O&M Division, 24 June 1948, RG28/153.

33. Ross to Jefferies, 13 July 1948; Jefferies to Ross, 19 July 1948, RG28/153.

34. Phillips to Bridges, 1 October 1948, T222/434.

35. Notes of meeting between Treasury divisions, 22 December 1948, T222/435; meeting at GRO with Treasury, 1 February 1949, T222/435.

36. Report of MNI O&M Branch, 19 September 1949, PIN23/41.

37. Simpson, Treasury O&M Division, to Rhodes, MNI, 26 September 1949, T222/435.

38. Oades, MNI, to Simpson, 29 September 1949, PIN23/41.

39. Government Organisation Committee. Future of National Registration. Note by the Chairman. 7 October 1949, PIN23/41.

40. Higgs, Life, death and statistics, 209–215 documents the reorientation of the GRO towards food and welfare functions.

41. De Villiers to members of committee, 12 November 1949, T222/438.

42. Agar, ‘Identity cards in Britain’.

43. The draft report is dated 1 February, T222/436.

44. Minutes of meeting of de Villiers Committee with Ministry of Labour and National Service, 20 December 1948, T222/439; Minutes of meeting of Committee with War Office, 23 January 1950, T222/439.

45. The Home Office’s post-war position on national registration is discussed in more detail in (Bellamy 2019). Notes by Parkinson, Baker and others, dated 22 October to 26 October 1949 summarise its position, HO45/20145.

46. Notes by Parkinson, Home Office, about appearance before Committee, 16 December, 17 December 1949, HO45/25015.

47. Minutes of meeting of de Villiers Committee with Home Office, 15 December 1949, T222/439.

48. Horn to Ross, 11 October 1949, RG28/149; Skeleton Notes on Pros and Cons of Nation Registration, 26 October 1949, RG28/149; Memorandum by Horn, undated, RG283/300; Papers by Ross on Production of Identity Cards on Marriage; Use of National Registration for Conscription; national registration in Northern Ireland, Norway and Canada; letter codes and identity numbers; and the Future of National Registration, all dated 28 November 1949, RG283/300.

49. Cornish to Baker, 1 May 1952, HO45/25015: ‘ … the R.G’s letter is characteristically inaccurate, peevish, silly and generally misconceived … ’; also Simpson to Playfair, 19 Dec 1950, T227/336 ‘We have become accustomed to outbursts of this kind from Dr North whenever his favourite child comes under criticism or, as in this case, is in danger of sudden death’.

50. Jefferies to Simpson 28 April 1952, T222/701; Clarke to Jefferies and others, 23 December 1953, T227/338.

51. Minutes of the Second Meeting of the de Villiers Committee, 6 December 1949, T222/439.

52. This suggestion continued to be urged by Ross, e.g. at meeting between GRO officials and the Committee on 26 January, T222/439.

53. Agar, ‘Modern horrors’, 119.

54. Minutes of the Second Meeting of the de Villiers Committee, 6 December 1949, T222/439.

55. Papers by Ross, 20 January 1950: Notes on MNI letter; notes on how to start a common scheme; note to Horn, RG28/300. A less polemical version of the main paper was submitted to the Committee by North on 24 January, T222/438.

56. Draft for internal circulation, 3 December 1949, PIN23/41.

57. Tiffen, MNI, to Rhodes, MNI, 20 December 1949, PIN23/41.

58. Letter from MNI to De Villiers Committee, 13 January 1950, PIN23/379.

59. MNI to De Villiers Committee, 13 January 1950, PIN23/379 and accepted by the committee in 1 February 1950, Report of the committee on national registration, T222/436.

60. Letter from MNI to de Villiers, 13 Jan 1950, PIN23/379.

61. MNI Memorandum on NI Registration, to De Villiers Committee, Appendix H1, appended to minutes of meeting 1 February 1950, PIN23/379.

62. Minutes of meeting of committee with MH representatives, 6 Feb 1950, T222/437, item I: ‘The chairman said that the use of the National Registration system in connection with the National Health Service has presented the committee with its biggest problem’.

63. Stockman, MNI, to Tiffin, MNI, 14 January 1950, PIN23/379.

64. Note of Meeting at Treasury, 22 May 1950, T227/336.

65. Mitchell to Hale, 13 May 1950, T227/336.

66. Simpson to Owen, 19 December 1950, T227/336.

67. Tiffen to Rhodes, 2 June 1950, PIN23/378.

68. Simpson, Treasury O&M, to Owen, 1 December 1950, T227/336.

69. Note of meeting 26 April 1950, T222/436.

70. Minutes of the GOC of the Cabinet, 26 Apr 1950, T222/436.

71. T222/436, correspondence from 27 April 1950 to, e.g. 17 October 1950.

72. North to Petch, 19th Jan 1951, T222/436.

73. Rhodes, MNI, to Hale, Treasury, 31 July 1950, T227/336.

74. ibid.

75. Playfair to Simpson, 12 Dec 1950, T227/336.

76. Mitchell to Owen and Simpson, Treasury, 19 Dec 1951, T227/337. The (slight mis)quotation is from Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Act 1, scene 2, 176–181. Mitchell is comparing Dame Enid Russell-Smith to Hamlet’s mother, Gertrude, whom Hamlet at this point accuses of marrying the man he suspects of killing her husband, his father, with indecent haste and for her own advantage.

77. North to GOC, 19 April 1951, T222/436.

78. Bradley, 1987.

79. Dovey, 1987, ‘Correspondence: why national registration had to go’.

80. Oake to Helsby, Food, 3 July 1951, MAF99/1242.

81. Helsby, Food, to Oake and others, 7 July 1951, MAF99/1242.

82. ibid.

83. Lee to Helsby, 26 July 1951, MAF99/1242.

84. Petch, Cabinet Office, to Hewison, Treasury, 24 September, 1951, T222/437.

85. Financial Secretary to Home Affairs Committee, 30 November 1951, T222/437.

86. Minutes of Home Affairs Committee, 7 December 1951, T222/441.

87. Agar, 2003, 344.

88. Agar, ‘Modern horrors’, p.117.

89. Daily Telegraph newspaper cutting, 11 February 1952, T222/437.

90. North to Bavin, undated but presumably between 18 and 20 February 1952, RG28/304.

91. T222/441 passim.

92. Bellamy (2019).

93. Baker, Home Office, to Chief Constables re HO Circular 124/1952, 29 May 1952, HO45/25015.

94. Note of a meeting held at MPNI with MH, Dept of H Scotland, Min Lab and NS, Min Pensions and GRO to discuss disclosure of information, 16th June 1953, MH78/251.

95. Minute of meeting, 18 December 1951, T222/441.

96. Dodds, MH, to Owen, Treasury, 15 April 1952, T227/337.

97. Mitchell to Owen, Treasury, 17 January 1952, T227/337.

98. Minutes of meeting on 8 Oct 1953, MH135/139.

99. Minutes of meeting, 3 October 1953, PIN28/42.

100. Jefferies to Mitchell, 8 October 1953, T222/701.

101. Marre to Workman, 8 October 1956, T222/701.

102. ibid.

103. Workman to O’Donovan, Mason and others, 26 Oct 1955, T222/701.

104. Discussed widely: for example, T227/337 passim.

105. The evolution of the MoF position is reviewed by Hamilton-Farrell to Milner-Barry, Treasury, 14 December 1954, MAF99/1244.

106. Horn, GRO, to Pennison, MAF, 15 March 1955, MAF99/1244.

107. Dockeray to Pinkerton 9 Nov 1955, MAF13/35; Dockeray to Gardner, 17 May 1955, MAF313/16.

108. Jones to Lewin, MPNI, 25 March 1964, PIN28/42.

109. Reisner, MH, to Brandes, MH EC Division, 20 April 1964, MH153/361.

110. Rooke-Matthews to Reisner, MH, 18 March 1964, MH153/361.

111. Forrester to Jones, 16 June 1964, PIN47/145(II).

112. Reisner, MH to Brandes, MH O&M, 20 April 1964, MH153/361; Reisner to Bavin, MH, 1 September 1964, MH153/361.

113. Embling, DES, to Lees, Treasury, 25 May 1964, PIN28/42.

114. Nunn to permanent secretaries, 3 June 1969, CAB 164/392.

115. Nunn to Trend, Cabinet Secretary, 27 June 1969, CAB 164/392. On NCCL in this period, see Agar, The government machine, 343–366.

116. ANR(?) to Trend, 23 November 1969, PREM13/3257.

117. Trend to Wilson, PM, 17 November 1969, PREM 13/3257.

118. Minutes of a meeting, 3 March 1970, T222/4340.

119. WG Wilson, ADP Newcastle, to Matthews, 8 September 1978, PIN19/475.

120. Redfern (1989), Population Registers: Some Administrative and Statistical Pros and Cons, 1989, Journal of the Royal Statistical Society. Series A (Statistics in Society), 152, (1), 1–41, at 18–21.

121. Home Office, July 2002, Entitlement Cards and Identity Fraud, Cm 5557.

122. On early proposals for a single education number, see Harvey, Education, to Tiffin, Treasury O&M, 4 September 1964, PIN47/145.

123. Prime Minister and the Minister for the Cabinet Office, Modernising government.

124. Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, Transformational government.

125. Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, Transformational government, paragraphs 8 and 14.

Agar, The government machine.