Defence Analytical Services and Advice (DASA) was a

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

and

economic An economy is an area of the Production (economics), production, Distribution (economics), distribution and trade, as well as Consumption (economics), consumption of Goods (economics), goods and Service (economics), services. In general, it is ...

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

Ministry of Defence A ministry of defence or defense (see American and British English spelling differences#-ce.2C -se, spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is the part of a government responsible for matters of defence and Mi ...

(MoD), as the Defence Analytical Services Agency. DASA was initially an

executive agency An executive agency is a part of a government department that is treated as managerially and budgetarily separate, to carry out some part of the executive functions of the United Kingdom government, Scottish Government, Welsh Government or No ...

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 and Defence Statistics. 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 t ...

. 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 The Government Statistical Service (GSS) is the community of all civil servants in the United Kingdom who work in the collection, production and communication of official statistics. It includes not only statisticians, but also economists, socia ...

and the Government Economic Service. 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 city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

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 status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, the most populous city in the region. Built around the River Avon, Bristol, River Avon, it is bordered by t ...

. DASA also had personnel co-located with each of the three Armed Services at

RAF High Wycombe Royal Air Force High Wycombe or more simply RAF High Wycombe is a Royal Air Force station, situated in the village of Walters Ash, near High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire, England. It houses Headquarters Air Command, and was originally designed ...

with HQ Air Command for the RAF,

HMS Excellent A ship and a shore establishment of the Royal Navy have borne the name HMS ''Excellent'': * was a 74-gun third rate launched in 1787. She was converted into a 58-gun fourth rate in 1820 and became a gunnery training ship in 1830. She was broke ...

Portsmouth Portsmouth ( ) is a port city status in the United Kingdom, city and unitary authority in Hampshire, England. Most of Portsmouth is located on Portsea Island, off the south coast of England in the Solent, making Portsmouth the only city in En ...

with the

Navy Command Headquarters The Navy Command is the current headquarters body of the Royal Navy, and as of 2012 its major organisational grouping. It is a hybrid, neither a command, nor simply an installation. Royal Navy official writings describe Navy Command Headquarters ...

for the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...

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 * Andov ...

with Army Headquarters for the

British Army The British Army is the principal Army, land warfare force of the United Kingdom. the British Army comprises 73,847 regular full-time personnel, 4,127 Brigade of Gurkhas, Gurkhas, 25,742 Army Reserve (United Kingdom), volunteer reserve perso ...

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

PhD A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of graduate study and original research. The name of the deg ...

. 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