The Office for National Statistics (ONS) is responsible for running and producing results from the decennial census in England and Wales. This project is concerned with improving the accessibility of historical census data, enabling greater use to be made of it. Statistical outputs for England and Wales from the 2011 to 1971 censuses can be downloaded in digital form from ONS and other websites. However, a complete set of census data from the main volumes produced from 1961 to 1801 is not available digitally. All the information is publicly available (for example, through public libraries), but in paper form it has very limited accessibility and usability for analytical purposes. ONS would like to convert all the tables of aggregate data from the historical census volumes into digital data. On receipt of the data ONS will make it available to users free of charge via an online portal with a file download facility. This will allow greater use to be made of the historical census data and enable an improved understanding of socio-economic change over time. The call-off contract will allow ONS to focus on the published volumes from the 1961 Census and earlier years, potentially all the way back to 1801. Our first priorities would be the 4 census years from 1961 to 1921 (NB. there was no Census conducted in 1941), and our expectation is that it would be possible to complete this work within 2 years. The exact scope for delivery in the first year would be agreed with the supplier on award of the contract. There will be different stages to the work:— automated extraction of data from the census volumes,— a mechanism to assign missing values that cannot be extracted using Optical Character Recognition (OCR),— quality assurance to validate the data,— supply of fully specified tables in spreadsheet format (e.g. .xls or .csv). Scanned images of the census volumes already exist but the successful bidder may decide it is more cost-effective to undertake a re-scan of the volumes to a higher, more consistent standard (i.e. better granularity and alignment) to improve the efficiency of the conversion into digital data. In addition to the data, we require high quality digital boundaries at a resolution appropriate for use online/publications at district level (and lower level geographies if possible). District level boundaries have already been created for 1961 as part of an ongoing project so this requirement would be for 1951 and earlier census years only. Further details on indicative volumes will be released on the 1st April with the procurement pack. The competition will take the form of a 2 stage open competition via the eSourcing portal In-tend. Should you wish to register interest please send an email to Ian.Mackinnon@ONS.gov.uk with the following details: your company name contact email address contact telephone number. You will also be required to register interest via the In-tend portal by following the link below: https://in-tendhost.co.uk/ons/aspx/HomeInstructions on how to register are contained within the link provided.