§ Mr. RedmondTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will make it his policy to hold centrally information in respect of local authorities on the amount of funding that is provided to maintain county archival records; and if he will make a statement. [38301]
§ Mr. SproatI have been asked to reply.
My Department has recently assumed certain additional responsibilities for archives, formerly with the Department of Environment. Local authorities provide information on the funding of their archive services to the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy. This is collated in its annual publication "Archive Services Statistics".