Documents held at The National Archives
The history of the Public Records Act
The Public Record Office Act of 1838 was the first legislation to protect public records by creating an official archive. It brought together in a single repository the records of the Exchequer, Chancery and other ancient courts of law. This was administered to by professional staff in a new non-ministerial government department, under the direction of the Master of the Rolls.
There were limitations to the act, however, as the records held in government departments, whether current or past, were not covered. There was therefore no system in place to determine which departments transferred their older records into the care of this central archival authority. The Public Record Office (PRO) had no legal right to determine which departmental records were weeded out and which were transferred, although from 1852 it was allowed to accept them. There was also no provision for destroying any records in the Public Record Office, nor was there any legal requirement to allow public access.
The Grigg Committee and the Public Records Act 1958
By the early 1950s concern was being expressed about the lack of a systematic procedure for the transfer, destruction and preservation of government records. A committee was therefore appointed in 1952 by the Chancellor of the Exchequer and the Master of the Rolls.
The chairman of this committee on departmental records was Sir James Grigg, a former Permanent Under Secretary of the War Office. The committee's principal conclusions in its report of 1954 (Cmd 9163) were:
- Responsibility for the selection and transfer to the PRO of records worthy of permanent preservation should rest with departments.
- The PRO should be responsible for guidance, coordination and supervision of these processes.
- New legislation was required to transfer responsibility for the PRO from the Master of the Rolls to a minister, and to implement the committee's other recommendations.
- Most records should pass through a system of first and second reviews, determining which should be preserved until second review for the department's own purposes and subsequently which should be preserved permanently on grounds of departmental need and historical significance.
- Records should be transferred to the PRO by the time they were 30 years old and should be opened to general public inspection when they were 50 years old, unless special considerations dictated different periods.
- Each department should appoint a departmental record officer to be responsible for its records from the time they were created or first reviewed until their destruction or transfer to the PRO, reporting to the director of establishments or an officer of similar status.
- A records administration officer should be appointed in the PRO, supported by a number of inspecting officers, to carry out the PRO's responsibilities.
- Cinematograph films, photographs and sound recordings should be treated as public records.
The government announced its acceptance of the main recommendations in July 1955 and the first records administration officer (RAO) was appointed in December of that year. The first inspecting officers (IOs) were appointed in 1956 and the departmental record officers (DROs) were introduced to work with existing records and to implement new reviewing procedures.
The Public Records Act 1958 came into force on 1 January 1959 to provide the statutory framework for the new system, and for the new relationship between the PRO and departments. It transferred responsibility for public records and the PRO to the Lord Chancellor, and placed the day to day management of the PRO in the hands of a Keeper of Public Records. For the first time a statutory, general public right of access was given after 50 years - with arrangements for exceptions - to public records transferred to the PRO or to a place of deposit elsewhere appointed by the Lord Chancellor.
The Public Records Act 1967 and the 30 year rule
In 1967 it was decided to reduce the 50 year closure period to 30 years. This allowed records relating to the First World War and those created before 1923 to be available for public inspection. An amending Public Records Act took effect on 1 January 1968.
The introduction of the 30 year rule focused attention on the need to identify those papers or records that could be classed as sensitive. The Lord Chancellor's powers to give those records additional protection, at the request of their originating departments, became more significant.
With the records of the First World War now open, the records of the Second World War and the immediate post war period were made available for public inspection at the beginning of 1972. However, Second World War Service personnel records remain closed.
In October 2007, the Prime Minister announced an independent review of the 30 year rule. The review report was published in January 2009, and recommended a reduction to the 30 year rule. The Government has decided that the period should progressively be reduced to 20 years, but with special protection for papers of the Royal Family and the Cabinet.
For more details, see the Prime Minister's announcement on the Number 10 website.
The Freedom of Information Act 2000
The Freedom of Information (FOI) Act replaced those parts of the Public Records Act that related to access to records. The act was passed in November 2000 and came fully into force on 1 January 2005.
The old regime, under which records were closed for 30 years unless the Lord Chancellor set a longer or a shorter period, has effectively been replaced by the Freedom of Information access regime. However, the provisions under which public records must be transferred to The National Archives by the time they are 30 years old, unless they are retained in the department with the approval of the Lord Chancellor, remained unaffected but will now be progressively reduced to the new 20 year period.
