Request
Concerning access to MEPO 3/1871: Protection of members of the Royal Family: police establishment. Misplaced while on loan to government department.
May I have all information held by TNA concerning the file, including:
• when it was first received by TNA
• when and to whom it was returned by TNA
• when and how TNA first became aware it was ‘misplaced’
• what steps it took to locate it
Outcome
Information provided.
Response
• MEPO 3/1871 was first received by TNA on 27 June 1973.
• It was returned to the MPS’s Departmental Record Officer on 8 July 2000. Departments can recall records of their own origin under the Public Records Act 1958, for one of three reasons; conduct of official business, publication, and loan or exhibition.
• TNA first became aware it was misplaced, and registered it as missing, on 16 November 2009.
• On 21 April 2021, the MPS confirmed that they had located the record, and suggested that it could be returned to TNA after the pandemic restrictions had ended. The record is at present still with the MPS.