Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what targets have been set for the release of his Department's records to the National Archives; what progress has been made in meeting those targets; and how many staff in his Department are engaged in reviewing records for this purpose.

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO), like all government departments, is required to comply with the statutory timetable for the review of its files under the Public Records Act (PRA). Currently the FCO has a backlog of annual departmental files awaiting review as a result of the review and release of colonial administration files over the 2011-2013 period. The FCO’s Special Collection files, which consist primarily of older historical records, also form part of our review programme.

The FCO has agreed a review timetable with The National Archives. The Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice, my right hon. Friend the Member for Epsom and Ewell (Mr Grayling), approved the timetable upon the advice of the Advisory Council on National Records and Archives, who reviewed and considered the timetable for transfer. Our review plans as well as the projected release dates for FCO files at The National Archives are published at www.gov.uk/archive-records.

A team of 41 FCO part-time sensitivity reviewers (former senior diplomats) is responsible for the appraisal and selection of FCO files for permanent preservation and the subsequent sensitivity review of those files prior to release.