HL Deb 31 March 2004 vol 659 c166WA
Lord Lester of Herne Hill

asked Her Majesty's Government:

Whether they will retain public records of all the legal advice given to the Government about the legality of the invasion of Iraq. [HL1664]

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Constitutional Affairs (Lord Filkin)

Care is taken to ensure that public records are permanently preserved and this includes legal advice.

Under the 1958 Public Records Act section 3(1) it is the responsibility of government departments to make arrangements for the selection of records which ought to be permanently preserved and for their safekeeping. The National Archives is responsible for identifying those records worthy of permanent preservation in accordance with its acquisition policy, details of which are to be found on its website at: http:// www.pro.gov.uk/recordsmanagement/acquisition/policy.htm