2013 takedown and reclosure

Request

1. Please provide a copy of any exchanges, correspondence and minutes of meetings between The National Archives and the Cabinet Office or the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office that are dated between 1 June 2013 and 30 October 2013, relate to the disclosures of former NSA contractor Edward Snowden or their effect on the release, retention, takedown, reclosure or keeping of intelligence related records.
2. Between 1 January 2013 and 30 May 2013, how many intelligence-related records were opened and/or transferred to The National Archives from the Cabinet Office and/or the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office?
3. Between 1 June 2013 and 31 December 2013, how many intelligence-related records were opened and/or transferred to The National Archives from the Cabinet Office and/or the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office?
4. Between 1 June 2013 and 31 December 2013, did The National Archives receive any requests from the Cabinet Office and the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office for the takedown and reclosure of records? Please provide a copy of such requests along with any relevant correspondence, as well as the outcome.

Outcome

Some information provided.

Response

1. Please provide a copy of any exchanges, correspondence and minutes of meetings between The National Archives and the Cabinet Office or the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office that are dated between 1 June 2013 and 30 October 2013, relate to the disclosures of former NSA contractor Edward Snowden or their effect on the release, retention, takedown, reclosure or keeping of intelligence related records.

The National Archives does not hold this information.

2. Between 1 January 2013 and 30 May 2013, how many intelligence-related records were opened and/or transferred to The National Archives from the Cabinet Office and/or the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office?

3. Between 1 June 2013 and 31 December 2013, how many intelligence-related records were opened and/or transferred to The National Archives from the Cabinet Office and/or the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office?

The opening date for a particular record can be found on its relevant catalogue page on Discovery, The National Archives’ online catalogue. This information is therefore exempt under section 21 of the FOI Act.

Between 1st January and 30th May 2013, 499 records were transferred by either the Cabinet Office or Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

A record is here defined as a distinct ‘piece’ (the piece reference typically coming after the departmental and series reference code - for example, the ‘2’ in ‘CAB 301/2’) rather than the sum of its orderable parts. Some records are split into several parts, usually due to their physical size.

Between 1st June 2013 and 31st December 2013, 55 records (pieces) were transferred by either the Cabinet Office or Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

The methodology for arriving at these figures, and for determining whether a record could be considered 'intelligence-related', was on the basis that they either include the word 'intelligence' in their title or sit within a TNA sub-series whose title includes the word 'intelligence'.

Please note that as these results are reliant on taxonomy this number is not definitive, and there may well be additional 'intelligence-related' files that cannot be easily identified as such based purely on the information that is searchable on our systems.

4. Between 1 June 2013 and 31 December 2013, did The National Archives receive any requests from the Cabinet Office and the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office for the takedown and reclosure of records? Please provide a copy of such requests along with any relevant correspondence, as well as the outcome.

The National Archives does not hold this information.

Annexe

Exemptions applied

Section 21: Information readily available to the applicant by other means

Section 21 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA) does not oblige a public authority to provide information if it is already reasonably accessible by other means.

In this case the exemption applies because the information on opening dates of records series’ is already available by conducting a search on Discovery.

We would recommend using the ‘Advanced Search’ option on Discoveryin order to refine your search.

Scrolling down to select ‘Search The National Archives’ extends the detail allowed in a search, which will allow you to refine your search by opening year and also includes a box enabling you to narrow results by government department reference codes. CAB, PREM, FCO, FO and CO references will likely be of interest. It is possible to export search results onto a CSV file.

Further guidance on the application of this exemption can be found on the ICO website.