§ Mr. RedmondTo ask the Attorney-General how many papers his Department has currently withdrawn from the Public Record Office; if he will list their titles; and when he estimates that they will be returned.
The Attorney-GeneralThe Law Officers' Departments occasionally exercise their statutory right to retrieve records temporarily from the Public Record Office for their own administrative use. Neither the legal secretariat to the Law Officers nor the Serious Fraud Office has any records out on loan. The Crown prosecution service has 14 records on loan and the Treasury Solicitor's Department one record on loan. All these records will be returned as soon as departmental action has been completed. I will write to the hon. Member about the titles.