Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, with reference to the Government procurement exercise reference TNA406, published on 11 November 2021, what discussions he has had regarding which of the collations of service records maintained by the National Archives should be selected as priorities for digitisation, licensing and publication.

The Ministry of Defence (MOD) and The National Archives (TNA) are in the first year of a six-year project, working to transfer almost 10 million service personnel records from MOD to TNA. The initial focus that has been agreed between MOD and TNA is on the transfer of records that cover Army “other ranks” and overseas regiments. This approach has been based on factors including the age-profile and physical presentation of these records. It is understood that TNA is planning for over 99 per cent of the records that will be transferred in the first year to go forward for digitisation, licensing and publication.