Request
I would like to know how many files whose authorised retention (not closure) periods have expired, for which no new retentions have been authorised and are therefore now overdue for transfer from these departments:
Cabinet Office
FCDO
Ministry of Defence
Outcome
Information witheld.
Response
Thank you for providing additional clarification concerning your request; to limit the definition of a ‘file’ to those listed on our online catalogue, Discovery. This allowed us to more accurately identify what we would be able to locate, retrieve and extract from available datasets.
An initial report generated from records listed on Discovery produced a dataset of over 14,000 records belonging to the Cabinet Office, FCDO and MoD. This lists retentions that have expired up to 2022. We would need to conduct further manual checks on each record listed within this dataset, in order to ascertain if the retention has expired with no transfer, if the record is being re-reviewed to ascertain whether the record can be transferred, or if a further retention application has been made. Due to this volume of records on this dataset and the amount of cross-checking involved, it will not be possible to provide this data within the cost limit. This is because this report includes records that have since been transferred to TNA and are open and orderable on Discovery, as well as records where there has been a further retention application that has been approved or is under consideration, but is not yet reflected on Discovery. It is also possible that the report may be incomplete or inaccurate due to limitations on the search parameters used to identify the ownership of certain records.
Therefore, the report that we are able to generate would require extensive editing, reconciliation against other reports and/or comparisons with data held on other systems. Even if this could be done within the cost limit, we cannot guarantee that the data would be accurate.
You may like to consider making a new request. Although we have considered potential ways that we might be able to provide a more limited amount of information in response to a more refined request, due to the necessity of conducting a manual check of the data, we would not be able to provide information within the cost limit even if you requested information on only one of the three departments you initially listed. We can provide the dataset of approximately 14,000 records listed on the expiry report, should you request it. However, as we have explained above, this data will not provide any meaningful answers to your initial questions concerning the actual current status of these records.
In matters relating to retained records we recommend that you contact the relevant government departments that have retained the records, as they will be in a better position to provide the most accurate information concerning their status.
Contact details for these departments can be found here.
Ministry of Defence:
MOD Information Rights Team
Ground floor, zone D
Main Building
Whitehall
London SW1A 2HB
Email: cio-foi@mod.uk
Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office
Information Rights Unit
Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office
Room WG.75
King Charles Street
London
SW1A 2AH
United Kingdom
Email: information.rights@fcdo.gov.uk
Cabinet Office
FOI Team
Cabinet Office
Room G39
1 Horse Guards Road
London
SW1A 2HQ
United Kingdom
Email: foi-team@cabinetoffice.gov.uk
Explanatory annex
Exemptions applied
Section 12: Exemption where cost of compliance exceeds appropriate limit
Section 12 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA) makes provision for public authorities to refuse requests for information where the cost of dealing with them would exceed an appropriate limit, which for central government departments like The National Archives, is set at £600. This represents the estimated cost of one person spending just over three working days determining whether the department holds the information, as well as locating, retrieving and extracting the information.
We estimate that it will take us in excess of this time to identify the appropriate information, and locate, retrieve and extract it due to the scope of your request and the necessity for us to complete manual checks on a large dataset. Therefore, we are not able to process this request further.
You may wish to consider refining your request. However, please note that we are unable to guarantee that any refined requests would fall within the cost limit.