Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether his Department has plans to change rules governing the disposal of military records; and whether any changes to those rules over the last 30 years.

Ministry of Defence records are subject to the provisions of the Public Records Act 1958 (PRA) and there are no plans to change this policy.

In the last 30 years the rules have been changed to accord with relevant amendments to the PRA, such as the reduction of the retention period from 30 years to 20 years under the Constitutional Reform and Governance Act 2010.

Military service records are exempt from this policy on Data Protection Grounds. Service records are retained for a minimum of 100 years following an individual's date of birth.