§ Mr. CohenTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many papers have been withdrawn from the Public Record Office by his Department in each of the last five years.
§ Mr. Archie HamiltonFigures for retrievals over the past 5 years cannot be provided without disproportionate cost.
The Ministry of Defence, in common with all other Government Departments, has a statutory right, under the Public Records Acts, to retrieve its records from the Public Record Office. Records which are in the public domain, but on loan to the MOD, are returned as soon as departmental action has been completed, but well-established procedures also exist for the earlier return of those records which are the subject of urgent access requests from the public.