HC Deb 19 June 1997 vol 296 cc269-70W
Mr. Baker

To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department, pursuant to his answer of 11 June,Official Report, column 450, what percentage of archival units produced by Government departments in 1965 have been (a) retained by Government departments with a specific future date identified for release into the public domain and (b) retained by Government departments with no specific future date identified for release into the public domain. [4311]

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 Nicholas Cox to Mr. Norman Baker, dated 18 June 1997: In the absence of the Chief Executive on business I have been asked by the Lord Chancellor's Parliamentary Secretary to reply for the Public Record Office to your question about the above. The great majority of records produced by Government departments in 1965 will by now have been destroyed under the normal arrangements for handling public records. Neither the Public Record Office nor Government departments kept statistics at that date of quantities of records created or destroyed, so that it is not now possible to give percentage figures for those records retained by their department. Approvals given by the Lord Chancellor for retention of records all give a date by which the approval is to be reconsidered. As stated in the White Paper Open Government (Cm 2290 July 1993), paragraph 9.24, records retained by departments for other than administrative reasons are subject to regular review, ie at least every 10 years The Chief Executive, Mrs Tyacke, or I would be very pleased to discuss any of these matters with you further, if you wished.

Mr. Baker

To ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department, pursuant to his answer of 11 June,Official Report, column 450, what percentage of the archival units passed to the Public Record Office from all Government departments in 1965 and what actual number have been subsequently (a) released into the public domain in their entirety and (b) released into the public domain in part. [4312]

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 Nicholas Cox to Mr. Norman Baker, dated 18 June 1997: In the absence of the Chief Executive on business, I have been asked by the Lord Chancellor's Parliamentary Secretary to reply for the Public Record Office to your question about the above. During 1965 47,865 archival units were transferred to the Public Record Office. To produce actual and percentage figures for those archival units which have been subsequently released either in whole or in part could only be done by checking against each individual item its expected and actual release date, and to do so would incur disproportionate cost. The Public Record Office estimates that around 1 per cent. of its holdings are unavailable because they are closed for longer than 30 years. The Chief Executive, Mrs Tyacke, or I would be very pleased to discuss any of these matter with you further, if you wished.