Request
Details of all the records that have been reclosed under TNA’s Reclosure and Takedown Policy between 1st May and 31st August 2024. This information should include the following: the catalogue reference for each record; the record title/description; the original opening date; the date of reclosure; the origin of reclosure (i.e. whether the request for reclosure was made by a member of TNA staff, a Government Department, or a member of the public); whether the record was reclosed in full or in part; and the FOI exemptions applied to justify reclosure. I would be grateful if this information could be provided in an Excel spreadsheet.
Outcome
Information withheld.
Response
Data requested from 1st May to 31st August 2024, regarding records reclosed under The National Archives’ Reclosure Policy, is exempt under section 22 of the FOI Act. Information relating to all records reclosed in 2024 by the FOI Centre will be published in January 2025. TNA publishes this data annually, at the beginning of each calendar year, on our website here.
For further information about why this exemption has been applied, please see below.
Exemptions applied
Section 22: Information intended for future publication
Section 22 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA) exempts from release information intended for future publication if (a) the information is held by the public authority with a view to its publication, by the authority or any other person, at some future date (whether determined or not), (b) the information was already held with a view to such publication at the time when the request for information was made, and (c) it is reasonable in all the circumstances that the information should be withheld from disclosure until the date referred to in paragraph (a).
Arguments in favour of disclosure:
Disclosure of the requested information would demonstrate The National Archives’ commitment to being a transparent and accountable organisation and would increase public awareness of the practices under the Reclosure policy at The National Archives.
Releasing information at the current time would allow for contemporary discussion on TNA’s reclosure and takedown policy and would consequently enable and enrich public debate.
Arguments against disclosure:
There are public interest arguments against disclosure of this information at the present time. These arguments include the requirement for time for the information to be gathered and properly verified before being placed in the public domain.
Publication of the data concerning reclosure of records in 2024 is intended for publication in the first quarter of 2025. This will be a complete set of data for the whole year. Publication now would not align with current plans to make this information available and would result in incomplete data being made available. It is not practical to accelerate the disclosure of this information and collation of this information now would also place a burden on officials, unfairly diverting resource away from the handling of other FOI requests.
It is also in the public interest to ensure that the information is available to all members of the public at the same time, and premature publication could undermine the principle of making the information available to all at the same time through the official publication process.
On this occasion, we have concluded that the balance of the public interest test falls in favour of withholding this information.
Further guidance on the application of this exemption can be found at:
https://ico.org.uk/media/for-organisations/documents/1172/information-intended-for-future-publication-and-research-information-sections-22-and-22a-foi.pdf