§ Norman BakerTo ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department what mechanism is used to determine which Government documents are(a) retained within a department, (b) sent to the Public Record Office and (c) destroyed; and what estimate she has made for the last year for which figures are available of the percentage of documents falling into each category. [27541]
§ Ms Rosie WintertonThe mechanism for determining which Government documents should be sent to the Public Record Office originates from the Public Records Act 1958. Under sections 3(1) and 2(2), public records bodies (which includes Government Departments) are responsible for selection of those records which are to be permanently preserved. This process is carried out under the guidance, supervision and co-ordination of the Public Record Office.
The broad criteria governing selection are set out in the PRO's "Acquisition Policy", published in 1998, with more detailed criteria being set out in operational selection policies relating to particular themes or Departments. These are available on the PRO's website at www.pro.gov.uk/recordsmanagement/.
Records not selected for the PRO may be deposited in other archives that have been approved by the PRO under the Act as suitable places of deposit for public records.
The Public Records Act 1958 makes provision for Departments to retain records over 30-years-old for administrative purposes or other special reasons, subject to the approval of the Lord Chancellor. The White Paper "Open Government" (Cm 2290, 1993) defines the 389W grounds on which Departments may apply for permission to retain records. The Lord Chancellor's Advisory Council on Public Records assesses the applications from Departments. Where applications for retention seem, either to the Advisory Council or to officials at the PRO, to be inappropriate, the items are referred back to the originating Department for further investigation. Once the Advisory Council is satisfied, a schedule of retention applications is passed to the Lord Chancellor for his signature.
Departments are responsible for destroying records which have not been selected for preservation in the Public Record Office or other places of deposit and which they do not require for continuing administrative purposes.
It is not possible to calculate precisely the percentages of records retained and destroyed because Departments are not required to report the overall quantity of records created. A study of records storage and management in Government, conducted jointly by the Public Record Office and Cabinet Office in 1997 ("Records Storage and Management, a Scoping Study"), estimated that on
£ Parliamentary constituency Health authority 2001–021 2001–022 Sedgefield County Durham 730 808 West Chelmsford North Essex 728 674 South-West Surrey West Surrey 749 671 North-West Hampshire North and Mid Hampshire 736 615 1 Allocation per weighted head of population 2 Allocation per unweighted head of population