§ Mr. BakerTo ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department how many documents deemed appropriate for release for public scrutiny are currently withdrawn from the Public Record Office by the Department of origin. [14451]
§ Mr. HoonThe Question concerns a specific operational matter on which the Chief Executive of the Public Record Office is best placed to provide an answer and I have accordingly asked the Chief Executive to reply direct.
Letter from Sarah Tyacke to Mr. Norman Baker, dated 7 November 1997:
PQ 98/335: DOCUMENTS WITHDRAWN FROM THE PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE BY THE DEPARTMENT OF ORIGINI have been asked by the Lord Chancellor's Parliamentary Secretary to reply for the Public Record Office to your question about the above.475WFour thousand six hundred and fifty documents are currently temporarily withdrawn from the Public Record Office by the department of origin, as authorised by section 4(6) of the Public Records Act, 1958. Most of these documents are deemed appropriate for release for public scrutiny and even when temporarily withdrawn can be made available on demand by a member of the public for consultation in our reading rooms or in the withdrawing department. However I regret that we do not separately enumerate the documents in this category.