New UK Population Database Project Launched

Digital Media Europe reports that the UK government has launched a new central database project for civil registrations – births, deaths and marriages – which will allow citizens to register online or by telephone. The database will hold up to 250 million records, making it one of the largest such IT projects in the world. The General Register Office (GRO) is seeking suppliers to provide the central infrastructure, web-hosting options and means to capture data from paper records dating back to 1837. According to the Civil Registration Review Project Director, "the English registration system has been used as a model in many other countries, and we expect interest from existing suppliers of systems from as far away as Canada, New Zealand and Australia". For the Digital Media Europe report, see: http://www.dmeurope.com/default.asp?ArticleID=2427. To view the GRO invitation for tenders, visit: http://www.statistics.gov.uk/pdfdir/groit0704.pdf. Summary by: The Editor