Documents (Hansard, 2 July 1990)

§ Mr. Fearn
To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster what criteria he uses when deciding which documents to pass on to the Public Record Office.

§ Mr. Kenneth Baker
My office is situated in the Cabinet Office, which complies with the guidelines issued by the Public Record Office on the selection of documents for permanent preservation. Decisions on which documents are transferred to the Public Record Office for this purpose are taken in consultation with PRO inspection officers.

§ Mr. Fearn
To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster what system he employs to classify, log and otherwise record each document generated by the Duchy; and if he will make a statement.

§ Mr. Kenneth Baker
Each outgoing document from my private office is recorded in a document register. Each document is given a unique number and various details are recorded such as the date of the letter, security classification, subject, to whom the document was referred to and its file number.

§ Mr. Fearn
To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster what percentage of and how many documents in 1989 he estimates were(a) passed on to the Public Record Office intact, (b) passsed on to the Public Record Office in censored form, (c) retained in full, (d) retained in part, (e) destroyed, (f) otherwise disposed of and (g) otherwise unaccounted for.

§ Mr. Kenneth Baker
No document falls due for selection and transfer to the Public Record Office until it is at least 30 years old. A document's suitability for permanent preservation under the terms of the Public Records Act 1958 will be reviewed during that period. The Act does not require statistics to be kept in the form requested and to do so would inevitably incur disproportionate cost. However, in order to comply with their duties under the Act, Departments are obliged to ensure that all documentary records are properly preserved with a view to possible transfer to the Public Record Office and eventual release to the public. The general criteria under which the Department may retain documents over 30 years old are set out in section 3(4) of the Public Records Act.