ES 1/956 and access history

Request

I would like to make a request under the relevant legislation for the following information:

• The date on which file ref ES 1/956 was made available to the public at the National Archives
• The date, if applicable, ES 1/956 was ever withdrawn from the archives
• The number of pages in ES 1/956
• The publication of those pages within ES1/956 which have been withheld under S3 (4) of the Public Records Act

I anticipate the last part of this request will take some extra work and may be subject to a public interest test. Please provide answers to the first three points, if this is the case, while considering whether it is possible to publish the withheld pages.

These pages seem to have been withheld in 1997, and relate to documents from 1958. As the documents in question are now 68 years old and were last reviewed 29 years ago, please consider whether they have any continuing national security risks or can now be published.

Outcome

Some information provided.

Response

ES 1/956 was made accessible to the public in August 1997.

All ES series records were withdrawn from public access at The National Archives in July 2018 in order for the MoD to conduct a sensitivity review of the records. Details of this review are published on the MoD’s website.

ES 1/956 has been returned to The National Archives and is an open record.

We do not hold a record of the number of pages in ES 1/956. FOI requests cover recorded information already held by a public authority at the time of the request, and the provision of this information would require the creation of new information. This is not a requirement for a public authority under the FOI Act. However, you may wish to consider viewing the record in our reading rooms at Kew.

Alternatively, you may wish to request a page check.

We acknowledge that ES 1/956 contains what are referred to as ‘dummy cards’ that indicate that pages have been removed from the record, and that these cards state that the documents to which these cards refer have been retained by the transferring department under section 3(4) of the Public Records Act 1958. This information is therefore not held by The National Archives.

Please contact the transferring department, in this case the Ministry of Defence, if you would like to request access to these retained records. We will not be forwarding your request. Details of how to contact the MoD can be found on the relevant page of their website.