HC Deb 11 June 1997 vol 295 cc449-51W
Mr. Baker

To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department what is the number of documents passed to the Public Record Office in 1996 from all Government departments. [2504]

Mr. Hoon

The 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 10 June 1997: I have been asked by the Lord Chancellor's Parliamentary Secretary to reply for the Public Record Office to your question about the above. 103,997 documents were passed to the Office in 1996. A "document" is an archival unit, usually comprising a file, a volume or a bundle of papers rather than an individual sheet of paper.

Mr. Baker

To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department of the documents passed to the Public Record Office from all Government departments in 1965 what percentage he estimates have been(a) released under the 30-year rule in their entirety, (b) released under the 30-year rule in part only, (c) retained with a specific future date identified for release into the public domain, retained with no specific future date identified for release into the public domain, (e)destroyed, (f)otherwise disposed of and (g)otherwise unaccounted for; and what is the total of (a) to (g) as a percentage of all those documents passed to the Public Record Office in 1965. [2505]

Mr. Hoon

The 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 10 June 1997: I have been asked by the Lord Chancellor's Parliamentary Secretary to reply for the Public Record Office to your question about the above. Regarding (a) and (b), records passed to this Office in 1965 were subject to a fifty year rule. The thirty year rule came into force in 1968, under the Public Records Act 1967. Regarding (c) and (d), records passed to this Office could not as the same time have been 'retained' by government departments. Retentions were for specified periods, which were renewable. Regarding (e), 44 Cause Books of the Chancery Division of the Supreme Court (J 12), dating from 1939, were destroyed in 1972, following the recommendations of the Committee on Legal Records in 1966 (Cmnd 3084). In addition, items from among the War Office, Registered Papers, General Series (WO 32), dating from 1855 to 1925, were destroyed in 1967 following a re-review of the contents of the class, as were a small number of items from the War Office reports and Miscellaneous Papers (WO 33), dating between 1925 and 1930, in 1968. Regarding (t) and (g), no records passed to this Office in 1965 have been disposed of otherwise than by destruction, or are otherwise unaccounted for. Details of the records transferred to the Public Record Office in 1965 appear as appendix II to the Report of the Keeper of Public Records for that year, laid before Parliament in 1966.

Mr. Baker

To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department what percentage and how many documents in 1996 he estimates were(a) passed on to the Public Record Office intact, (b) passed on to the Public Record Office in censored form, (c) retained by his Department in full, (d) retained by his Department in part, destroyed, (f)otherwise disposed of, and (g)otherwise unaccounted for. [2508]

Mr. Hoon

No document falls due for transfer to the Public Record Office until it is 30 years old. The suitability of a document for selection 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. To do so would incur disproportionate cost. However, in order to comply with their duties under the Act, departments are obliged to make arrangements for the safekeeping of their records, with a view to their possible selection and transfer to the Public Record Office and eventual release to the public. The general arrangements for extended closure or retention of public records are set out in Chapter 9 of the White Paper Open Government of July 1993 (Cm 2290).