Special Operations Executive

HC Deb 26 November 1992 vol 214 cc770-1W

Mr. Carrington

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what plans he has to release the records of the wartime Special Operations Executive.

Mr. Hurd

As part of the initiative which I announced on 14 May to review records withheld for more than 30 years, work has started on reviewing the SOE archives.

A large proportion of the original records of SOE were destroyed, both by SOE itself at the end of the war, and in a fire at the Baker street headquarters in late 1945. The remaining archives are substantial and complex and the complete review will take some time. However, a first batch should be released in the second half of 1993.