Defence Analytical Services and Advice (DASA) was a

statistical Statistics (from German: '' Statistik'', "description of a state, a country") is the discipline that concerns the collection, organization, analysis, interpretation, and presentation of data. In applying statistics to a scientific, industr ...

and

economic An economy is an area of the production, distribution and trade, as well as consumption of goods and services. In general, it is defined as a social domain that emphasize the practices, discourses, and material expressions associated with t ...

unit within the MoD, initially created in 1992 from various statistics branches within the

Ministry of Defence {{unsourced, date=February 2021 A ministry of defence or defense (see spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is an often-used name for the part of a government responsible for matters of defence, found in state ...

(MoD), as the Defence Analytical Services Agency. DASA was initially an executive agency of the MoD but lost its agency status on 1 April 2008, becoming an administrative unit within the MOD, changing its name to Defence Analytical Services and Advice, retaining the acronym DASA. On 1 April 2013, DASA was split into two separate units within the MoD;

Defence Economics The economics of defense or defense economics is a subfield of economics, an application of the economic theory to the issues of military defense. It is a relatively new field. An early specialized work in the field is the RAND Corporation report ' ...

and

Defence Statistics Defense or defence may refer to: Tactical, martial, and political acts or groups * Defense (military), forces primarily intended for warfare * Civil defense, the organizing of civilians to deal with emergencies or enemy attacks * Defense indust ...

. The role of DASA was to compile staffing, financial and logistical statistics to provide professional analytical, economic and statistical services and advice to the MoD, Parliament, Ministers, Senior MoD Officials and other government departments, mainly through its publication of Defence related National Statistics Publications and responses to Parliamentary Questions and ''ad hoc'' queries. DASA also provided planning and forecasting models to the British Armed Services to help to inform their decisions. In addition to this, DASA was also responsible for providing members of the public with defence related statistics through the

Freedom of Information Act 2000 The Freedom of Information Act 2000 (c. 36) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that creates a public "right of access" to information held by public authorities. It is the implementation of freedom of information legislation in ...

. DASA employed a mixture of statisticians, economists, IT specialists, other analysts and specialists, and administrative staff. DASA was part of both the Government Statistical Service and the

Government Economic Service The Government Economic Service (GES) is a professional grouping of public sector economists who work across some 40 departments and agencies of His Majesty's Government (HMG). The GES Board is chaired by the Head of the GES and consists of gover ...

. As such, DASA Directors were usually the heads of profession for statistics and economics for the MOD. DASA had offices in six areas: the two largest were in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

and

Bath Bath may refer to: * Bathing, immersion in a fluid ** Bathtub, a large open container for water, in which a person may wash their body ** Public bathing, a public place where people bathe * Thermae, ancient Roman public bathing facilities Plac ...

, with smaller offices at MoD Abbey Wood in

Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city i ...

. DASA also had personnel co-located with each of the three Armed Services at RAF High Wycombe with HQ Air Command for the RAF, HMS Excellent,

Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port and city status in the United Kingdom, city in the ceremonial county of Hampshire in southern England. The city of Portsmouth has been a Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority since 1 April 1997 and is admi ...

with the Navy Command Headquarters for the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by Kingdom of England, English and Kingdom of Scotland, Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were foug ...

and

Andover Andover may refer to: Places Australia *Andover, Tasmania Canada * Andover Parish, New Brunswick * Perth-Andover, New Brunswick United Kingdom * Andover, Hampshire, England ** RAF Andover, a former Royal Air Force station United States * And ...

with Army Headquarters for the

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gur ...

. Its former Director (previous to that Chief Executive) whilst DASA was still an Agency was Dr Mike McDowall, BSc,

PhD PHD or PhD may refer to: * Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), an academic qualification Entertainment * '' PhD: Phantasy Degree'', a Korean comic series * ''Piled Higher and Deeper'', a web comic * Ph.D. (band), a 1980s British group ** Ph.D. (Ph.D. albu ...

. DASA was headed by Dr Prabhat Vaze until late 2012.

References

External links

Official website
{{United Kingdom Ministry of Defence Defence agencies of the United Kingdom Defunct executive agencies of the United Kingdom government