Report on Meeting at the Foreign & Commonwealth Office, 9 May 2014

The meeting was called by the FCO to inform interested academics and archivists about
the current position of the so-called Special Collections still held in the Foreign Office
archives. The obect was to gather views about what priority should be given to particular
collections and to give a detailed brea!down of the current programme for releasing
material to The "ational #rchives. #round $% people were in attendance with a panel of
si& e&perts' including representatives from T"# and the (ord Chancellors #dvisory
Council on archives.
The following points summari)e the information that was given at the meeting*
There are now an estimated +., million files still awaiting clearance and transfer
to T"#' a substantial increase on the number originally calculated. The broad
outline of the collections is available at www.gov-archive-records.
Of these files' around .% per cent are represented by microfilmed documents from
the /ong 0ong concession and documents related to compensation claims by
victims of the Third 1eich.
The most important collections in the remaining 2% per cent of files are records
from the Colonial #dministration Offices' records from the #llied Control
Commission for 3ermany and various intelligence files including the FO
4nformation 1esearch 5epartment. There are also some documents still relating to
the 6urgess and 7aclean cases.
The aim is to deposit these special collections by ,%+8' but the bac!log is very
substantial and it seems unli!ely that this deadline will be met. 9riority is to be
given to the FO 4nformation 1esearch 5epartment' the #llied Control
Commission and the remaining colonial material :a total of $%'%%% files;.
The release of files will be governed by the security restrictions imposed by the
(ord Chancellors office' and those deposited with T"# will not automatically be
open for research.
The current wastage rate of archived material is high < =% per cent is destroyed'
,% per cent is !ept in the medium term and only ,-> per cent ends in a permanent
archive.
The large bac!log of archives in the FCO :and in other government departments;
is li!ely to compromise the commitment to the introduction of a ,%-year rule. 4t is
probable that this new rule will not be capable of implementation until the ,%,%s
unless there is a substantial increase in the financial resources and personnel
devoted to the transfer process.
4n general the picture was a rather gloomy one. The impression given was that the FCO is
!een to accelerate the transfer of material and to do so with sufficient transparency' but
members of the audience were highly critical of the claim and assumed that the FCO is
still trying to conceal collections or documents which it regards as too sensitive to
release. The truth seems more li!ely to lie with the sheer scale of the special collections'
which was unanticipated' and which will put a severe strain on what limited resources are
currently available for the transfer. "o detail was given on how decisions are reached
between the FCO and T"# about which files would remain closed. 4n at least one case <
the /ong 0ong concession files < the microfilm format was unconventional and no way
had yet been found to ma!e the material technically accessible to researchers.
1ichard Overy'
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