The Public Record Office (PRO) holds the National Archives for England, Wales and the United Kingdom, and administers the UK's public records system under the Public Records Acts of 1958 and 1967. The records we keep span one thousand years of British and English history, from the Domesday Book to the latest releases of government files. They fill over 177 linear kilometres of shelving.
We act as the custodians of the national memory as revealed in the records of central government and the courts. Our work begins with overseeing the creation and management of active records in government departments; it continues with selecting and permanently preserving national records of enduring historical value in whatever format; and it culminates in making those records available online and on site to an increasing number of people worldwide, in the ways that are most convenient to them, in order to encourage an informed interest in the past.
Public records are created in the course of the daily activities of government departments and other government bodies. Only a small percentage of these records are selected for permanent preservation because of their enduring historical value. Selected public records are held by the PRO in its buildings at Kew or in over 230 approved places of deposit throughout England and Wales appointed by the Keeper of Public Records on behalf of the Lord Chancellor.
Public records come in many forms, including written documents, maps, plans, seals, photographs, moving images, sound recordings, and electronic records created and read by computers. They can be used for historical and genealogical research, to make government accountable to the people, to inform government decisions, and as legal evidence. Most of these records are opened to the public after 30 years, but the Lord Chancellor and his ministerial colleagues may decide to release some records earlier or later than this.
The aims of the PRO are to:
Its objectives cover:
Every year we propose corporate plans for the next three years, and more detailed business plans for the forthcoming year, each of which is approved by the Lord Chancellor. We have now completely integrated our e-business strategy, which we have developed in line with guidance provided by the Office of the e-Envoy, into our corporate and business plans.
Our corporate strategies and business plans are also informed by the Government Policy on Archives, presented to Parliament by the Lord Chancellor in December 1999, and by the accompanying Action Plan for the period 2002-05, which was issued by the Keeper of Public Records on behalf of the Lord Chancellor on 30 September 2002.
On 12 July 2002 the Minister of State at the Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) announced to Parliament that the PRO would come together with the Historical Manuscripts Commission (HMC), currently a non-departmental public body under DCMS, to form a new body called the National Archives, which will come under the Lord Chancellor, in April 2003. Since then a new Royal Warrant of 2003 has vested the functions of the HMC in the Keeper of Public Records as the sole Historical Manuscripts Commissioner, and she will act as the Accounting Officer for the National Archives as a whole.
A new umbrella Advisory Council on National Records and Archives, chaired by the Master of the Rolls on behalf of the Lord Chancellor, will cover general issues pertinent to the National Archives. Under this will sit two new bodies - the Lord Chancellor's Advisory Council on Public Records (statutory) and the Lord Chancellor's Advisory Council on Historical Manuscripts (focusing on non-public record matters).
It is intended that the HMC's staff and enquiry service, at present based in central London, will be relocated to Kew by the end of 2003.
We have agreed a Service Delivery Agreement (SDA) for the National Archives with HM Treasury, containing key performance targets and covering the period 2003-06.
The target set out in the Modernising Government White Paper is that electronic records management will be introduced throughout government by 2004. Our most important information management task is making sure that all government bodies achieve this target.
| Target To report each year on the departments' progress in meeting milestones towards the 2004 target (SDA 1). |
We are achieving this target. We now send reports to the Lord Chancellor every six months on the progress which government departments are making towards the 2004 target under our guidance. Yvette Cooper MP has been asked by the Lord Chancellor to lead on e-government issues, and all Whitehall departments have now appointed an e-minister. In addition, we are helping those departments where progress has been relatively modest so far by developing action plans and delivering a programme of workshops.
Most of the records created by government have only fairly short-term significance for the conduct of administrative or business activities. Our selection of those public records of enduring historical value for permanent preservation is intended to provide an information resource for our generation and future generations. Building on the solid foundations of the PRO's acquisition and disposition policies, we are now developing with government departments and other bodies a wide range of detailed operational selection policies. These provide substantive guidance on applying the acquisition and disposition policies to the records of individual government departments or to themes running across departments. We put all operational selection policies out for public consultation before issue.
| Target By March 2004 to have in place 28 quality standards (in the form of operational selection policies) to provide guidance on the selection of records (SDA 2). |
We are on schedule to meet this target. By October 2002, 17 operational selection policies had been finalised and were available on our website, and a further three were in draft form or out to public consultation.
Almost every record is now created through some form of electronic medium, usually a desktop PC. However, most of these records are still filed and managed as paper records - certainly within government. All of this is set to change due to the Government's target that newly created records should be stored and retrieved electronically by 2004.
We are already well advanced in preserving electronic datasets through our contract with the University of London Computing Centre to manage the National Digital Archive of Datasets. We have made extensive contacts with others working in the field of electronic preservation. At the same time, we have begun the essential task of specifying a digital preservation system that will enable us to store electronic records other than datasets. We are not facing an immediate deluge of digitised accessions, but we must be fully prepared for the time when the present trickle turns into a strong and healthy flow.
| Target To secure the preservation of government electronic records and of newly digitised records in the PRO in line with milestones to be established by the PRO's digital preservation strategy (SDA 4). |
We are on course to meet this target. We have set
up a project board and team with the aim of installing a digital preservation system at Kew by the end of March 2003. A detailed project plan and technical requirements have been drawn up, and a contractor has been selected through a competitive tendering process.
We continue to care for the many kilometres of records in more traditional media. As well as preserving these records for research, we offer them to the wider public through exhibitions and displays of key documents.
| Target To improve the preservation of selected public records by storing all of them to the British Standard for preservation and environmental conditions by 2003-04 (SDA 3). |
We are taking action to ensure that we meet this target. All paper and parchment records at Kew are kept in conditions which meet the relevant standard (BS 5454:2000). However, a comparatively small quantity of rarely consulted records have been kept
off-site for many years at Hayes, in conditions falling short of this standard. We are currently assessing other off-site options, with the aim of providing storage complying with the standard for all our accessioned records by March 2004.
We completed the first phase of a joint virtual catalogue for archives (Access to Archives, A2A) throughout England, in partnership with the British Library and the Historical Manuscripts Commission, by March 2002, and the second phase is now well under way. In 2003-04 we will begin to develop a website for the National Archives, combining PRO and HMC online services, and to enable our online users to search across PROCAT (our electronic guide to our holdings at Kew), the A2A catalogue, and the National Register of Archives (an online database for the location of archival sources relating to British history outside the public records).
A prime objective of our e-business strategy is to make available over the internet digital images of our most popular records - defined as those consulted by more than 80% of our users. These include core genealogical sources such as census returns, military service records, and probate material. In 2002-03 we launched a new scheme, known as Licensed Internet Associateships, under the terms of which commercial organisations meeting our rigorous quality standards will be enabled to make available online large classes of popular records in association with the National Archives and using its brand.
| Target To increase the combined total of information requests and electronic transactions online from 11 million in 1999-2000 to 45 million in 2003-04 (SDA 6). |
We continue to exceed this target. In 2001-02 we recorded over 49 million requests and transactions online, and are on course to handle over 70 million in 2002-03. Use of our Documents Online system, enabling users to order digital copies of popular records over the internet, continues to grow. By the end of March 2003 it will be possible to access wills from 1700 to 1858 in this way, as well as an increasing quantity of recently released government records on topics of interest to academic researchers and the wider public.
Our award-winning Learning Curve Gallery is linked to the National Grid for Learning and provides online materials relating to the history National Curriculum, for school pupils and teachers.
| Target To increase the use of the Learning Curve website so that by 2003-04 it will cover the main relevant history topics in the National Curriculum (SDA 7). |
The Gallery has continued to expand in the last year. We completed an online exhibition on Britain between 1906 and 1918, and two other exhibitions are in production. As a parallel activity, research and writing are proceeding for an exhibition on espionage, which will feature in our Virtual Museum. We are now welcoming an increasing number of school pupils and undergraduate students to our new educational facility, opened in October 2001 by the Lord Chancellor. The video-conferencing links, which form part of this facility, enable schools from all parts of the country to have history lessons from our education staff, using our unique material.
Members of the public seeking advice or services can contact us by telephone, letter, fax or e-mail. Users can now place advance orders for documents, book coach party visits, receive information about events and booking procedures, and obtain copies of documents through our contact centre.
| Target To develop our contact centre, with integrated telephone, fax and e-mail services, to enable the public to access detailed information and advice from a single point of contact (SDA 9). |
In 2001-02 our contact centre handled over 100,000 calls and, in response to this high level of activity, centre staff will soon be located in new improved accommodation at Kew. In 2003-04 we will introduce a new tracking system to handle requests by members of the public made in accordance with the Freedom of Information Act 2000. A business case for an electronic Customer Relationship Management System has been compiled, and this will be taken forward when funding permits.
Our on-site services continue to be well used and well regarded. We record on average about 100,000 reader visits to Kew and 160,000 to the Family Records Centre every year. In surveys, over 90% of respondents regularly rate our services as 'good' or 'excellent'. However, we recognise that, in order to retain such high ratings, we have to continue making service improvements under the auspices of our Public Services Development Programme.
| Target To implement our Public Services Development Programme, including self-service facilities, to streamline services and provide computer terminals for users, by 2003-04 (SDA 8). |
We introduced into the reading rooms permanent lockers for readers, enabling them to access ordered files for themselves and to avoid queues during busy periods, in 2001-02, and self-service document-copying using digital cameras in 2002-03. In 2003 the HMC's enquiry service will be relocated at Kew and we will, therefore, be in a position to provide a 'one-stop shop' for information about archival sources relating to any aspect of British history. We will also develop proposals to begin the redesign of the Kew reading rooms in consultation with our users.
In our corporate and business plans, we are committed to meeting specified targets covering our front-line public services. Our performance against these targets at the half-year stage is set out in Table 1.
We have taken the lead in implementing the new Government Policy on Archives, in co-operation with the other departments represented on the United Kingdom Inter-Departmental Archives Committee, in order to modernise the archives and records management sector and to improve access to information for all our citizens. The Policy applies the principles of joined-up government in an archival setting.
| Target To promote the objectives of the Government Policy on Archives to widen access opportunities by developing an Action Plan (SDA 5). |
Members of the UK Inter-Departmental Archives Committee, which provides co-ordination in matters of archival policy within government, approved the final version of the Action Plan in the summer of 2002. The Lord Chancellor then obtained the approval of his ministerial colleagues, and the Plan was issued on his behalf by the Keeper of Public Records on 30 September 2002. We have specific responsibility for promoting effective records management throughout the public sector (Objective 3) and have set up a new records management advisory service, which will be launched at a national conference, for this purpose. We are also leading on strategies for the handling of electronic data which needs to be permanently preserved (Objective 5). The practical experience of setting up a digital preservation facility at Kew will enable us to issue practical guidance on this key issue, which is the theme of a conference we will hold in April 2003 under the auspices of the International Council on Archives.
The access objectives of the Policy are being achieved through co-operation with other archive bodies, especially the National Council on Archives and the Regional Archive Councils, Resource (the Council for Museums, Archives and Libraries), the universities and the education sector more widely, and the BBC and other information providers. We are participating in the Archives Task Force currently being led by Resource, in the expectation that it will complement the activity of the National Archives by promoting regional developments and more collaborative projects between archives, libraries and museums.
One of the main action points in the Plan is to carry out a review of the existing legislation applying to archives and records management. Initial legal advice suggests that the Public Records Acts may not be able to cope with the requirements of digital records, and the experience of other countries in the English-speaking world indicates that new archival legislation would bring important benefits. The coming together of the PRO and the HMC further strengthens the case for new legislation. Officials from the relevant Whitehall departments are now considering the issues in detail in a working group led by the PRO.
Table 1: Performance against Charter Standard targets
| Service | Target | Performance |
| Availability of records which become open to public inspection on first working day of 2002 | 100% | 99.97% |
| Availability of records accessioned in the PRO opened to public inspection by a Lord Chancellor's Instrument | 90% within 15 working days | 99% |
| Availability of records transferred to the PRO which are already open | 80% within 70 working days | 97.2% |
| Replies to written requests for information (by letter, fax or e-mail) | 98.5% within 10 working days | 99.8% |
| Delivery of records to users in the reading rooms | 90% within 30 minutes (45 minutes on Saturdays) | 96.8% |
| Supply of copies of records to users | 98.5% to specific targets | 98.5% |
| Answering telephone enquiries in the contact centre | 80% of calls requiring an individual response from a member of staff within 20 seconds | 94.4% |
In the related area of freedom of information, the PRO drafted the Code of Practice on records management, to be issued by the Lord Chancellor under section 46 of the 2000 Act, and it was laid before Parliament on 20 November 2002. The enforcement provisions of the Code have not yet been activated, to give government departments and other public authorities more time to comply with them. We have issued model records management action plans for central and local government and NHS authorities, and have collaborated in the production of similar plans for higher education and the police. The PRO's publication scheme, involving the proactive release of information about our work, was approved by the Information Commissioner in November 2002.
We had our Charter Mark status renewed for a further three years in late 2001. We continue to set ourselves demanding satisfaction targets in our regular surveys of on site and online users.
We attracted external funding for the following major programmes, which will give users easier access to archives and encourage new users to discover for themselves the treasures contained in collections throughout the country:
Our revised e-business strategy was awarded a top 'four star' rating by the Office of the e-Envoy in the autumn of 2001. This strategy is underpinned by a new e-system strategy, finalised in early 2002, which ensures that the various strands of our e-business are completely connected, and that we adopt appropriate and robust technical solutions for the longer term. Our website is regularly among the top six sites within central government in terms of UK usage, and it also commands a considerable international audience.
The findings of recent Better Quality and other efficiency reviews have now been implemented in full. In 2003-04 the priority will be to improve the quality of services to the public by developing close links between the closely related services hitherto provided separately by the PRO and the HMC, but all under the National Archives umbrella from April 2003 onwards. The relocation of HMC staff and services to Kew will be integrated with the start of the next stage of our Public Services Development Programme, which will put forward proposals for the redesign of our reading rooms, in consultation with our users.
Our capital investment has increased significantly from approximately £1m in 2001-02 to approximately £3m in 2002-03. In broad terms our capital investment has supported the Government's 2004 and 2005 targets relating to electronic records management and electronic service delivery, while promoting social inclusion by broadening the range of PRO users. Although most of our developments required some capital resources, there were three main areas which were financially significant:
The money has been spent on a mixture of hardware and software, and on new systems.
An independent feasibility study found that the sale and leaseback of the PRO buildings would not provide value for money. There are no other significant possibilities for sale of surplus assets or asset disposal.
We always examine potential PPP solutions, particularly in areas of rapid technological change and areas of possible income generation. In January 2000 we signed a PPP-type contract with QinetiQ Ltd (formerly the Defence Evaluation and Research Agency) to digitise the 1901 Census returns and make them available on the internet. Significant and prolonged difficulties were experienced after the launch of the service in January 2002, but since its relaunch on the internet in November its performance has been entirely satisfactory.
The PRO established a commercial arm in 1995 and since then it has steadily expanded the ways in which revenue is raised through the commercial exploitation of the Office's holdings and sites.
Income is generated by a number of initiatives:
Income has increased from £642,646 in 1998-99 to a projected £900,000 in 2002-03.
We had our Investors in People (IiP) accreditation renewed again in March 2003. We are also developing a comprehensive framework of general staff competencies, known as Key Skills, which will provide a yardstick to check that our staff have the necessary competencies, both to carry out their current roles and to progress their careers in the National Archives.
We have published diversity targets relating to the composition of our staff by 2005 and now have a Managing Diversity Strategy in place. In 2002-03 we also published our Race Equality Scheme. In October 2002 we carried out a further survey of our staff's attitudes and are now developing an action plan to address the issues which have been raised.
We monitor all our recruitment to ensure that appointments are made on the basis of fair and open competition and selection on merit, as laid down in the Civil Service Commissioners' Recruitment Code. There were three permitted exceptions in the year 2001-02, which related to a move to permanency for staff on fixed-term appointments. Details of staff numbers are given in Table 7 at the end of this report.
There are four Senior Civil Service staff, three of whom are women. Of the total PRO staff at October 2002, 44.2% were women, 3.8% classed themselves as disabled under the Disability Discrimination Act, and 14% were from ethnic minorities. We have set targets to improve the diversity of our staff by 2005.
Our expenditure covers the cost of a number of activities:
Microfilming documents ensures their preservation and enhances access to them. We incur capital expenditure on improvement works and electronic development projects. Since we store approximately 177 linear kilometres of records, our accommodation costs are a high proportion of our total expenditure.
Costs are offset by charging for copies of documents, on paper and electronically.
The net administration costs of the Public Record Office will increase from £33.7 million in 2002-03 to £34.6 million in 2003-04. Investment in electronic service delivery will continue in 2003-04 at £3.3 million (£3.3 million in 2002-03). Details of the resource budget, administration costs, capital budget, staff numbers, and capital assets are given in the tables below.
We comply with the CBI prompt payment code and BS 7890. Our policy is to pay bills in accordance with contractual conditions. Where no such conditions exist, our policy is to pay within 30 days of receipt of goods and services or on presentation of a valid invoice, whichever is the later. We monitor our performance continuously: in 2002-03 we paid 99.2% of invoices within 30 days; our projection for 2003-04 is 99.2%.
Table 2: Public Spending for the Public Record Office (£'000)
| 1998-99 Outturn | 1999-00 Outturn | 2000-01 Outturn | 2001-02 Outturn | 2002-03 Estimated Outturn | 2003-04 Plans | 2004-05 Plans | 2005-06 Plans | |
| Consumption of resources: | ||||||||
| The cost of running the Public Records System | 22,766 | 25,076 | 27,184 | 29,917 | 34,926 | 35,753 | 36,746 | 38,744 |
| Total Resource Budget | 22,766 | 25,076 | 27,184 | 29,917 | 34,926 | 35,753 | 36,746 | 38,744 |
| of which:
Resource DEL |
22,766 | 25,076 | 27,184 | 29,917 | 34,926 | 35,753 | 36,746 | 38,744 |
| Capital expenditure: | ||||||||
| Capital investment in the Public Records System | 1,168 | 1,666 | 1,222 | 1,338 | 3,523 | 3,315 | 3,315 | 3,315 |
| Total Capital Budget | 1,168 | 1,666 | 1,222 | 1,338 | 3,523 | 3,315 | 3,315 | 3,315 |
| of which:
Capital DEL |
1,168 | 1,666 | 1,222 | 1,338 | 3,523 | 3,315 | 3,315 | 3,315 |
| Total Public Spending on PRO | 20,492 | 23,853 | 25,690 | 27,216 | 34,158 | 32,969 | 33,967 | 35,968 |
| of which:
'near cash' DEL |
20,434 | 23,873 | 25,812 | 27,587 | 31,802 | 31,738 | 32,738 | 34,738 |
From April 2003 the Public Record Office joined together with the Historical Manuscripts Commission. Table 2 includes an element in respect of the Historical Manuscripts Commission. Details can be found in Tables 3 and 4.
Table 3: Resource Budget for the Public Record Office (£'000)
| 1998-99 Outturn | 1999-00 Outturn | 2000-01 Outturn | 2001-02 Outturn | 2002-03 Estimated Outturn | 2003-04 Plans | 2004-05 Plans | 2005-06 Plans | |
| Departmental Expenditure Limit | ||||||||
| Voted: Promoting the study of the past in order to inform the present and future by selecting, preserving and making publicly available public records of historical value and by encouraging high standards of care and public access for archives of historical value outside the public records. |
||||||||
| RfR1 A Public Record Office | 22,678 | 24,672 | 26,320 | 28,688 | 33,731 | 34,597 | 35,597 | 37,597 |
| RfR1 B Historical Manuscripts Commission | 991 | 1,084 | 1,097 | 1,229 | 1,195 | 1,156 | 1,149 | 1,147 |
| RfR C Public Record Office | 10 | 29 | 13 | 37 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 |
| Total voted | 23,669 | 25,756 | 27,417 | 29,917 | 34,926 | 35,753 | 36,746 | 38,744 |
| Total non-voted: | ||||||||
| The cost of running the Public Records System | -903 | -680 | -233 | |||||
| Total non-voted | -903 | -680 | -233 | |||||
| Total Resource DEL | 22,766 | 25,076 | 27,184 | 29,917 | 34,926 | 35,753 | 36,746 | 38,744 |
| Total Resource Budget | 22,766 | 25,076 | 27,184 | 29,917 | 34,926 | 35,753 | 36,746 | 38,744 |
| of which:
Voted |
23,669 | 25,756 | 27,417 | 29,917 | 34,926 | 35,753 | 36,746 | 38,744 |
| Other non-voted | -903 | -680 | -233 | |||||
| and of which:
Central government own spending |
22,766 | 25,076 | 27,184 | 29,917 | 34,926 | 35,753 | 36,746 | 38,744 |
| NB Voted net resource outturn in Estimate of Public Record Office | ||||||||
| Resource DEL in Estimates | 23,669 | 25,756 | 27,417 | 29,917 | 34,926 | 35,753 | 36,746 | 38,744 |
| of which:
Resource DEL in Estimates |
23,669 | 25,756 | 27,417 | 29,917 | 34,926 | 35,753 | 36,746 | 38,744 |
| Total resource consumption in Estimates | 23,669 | 25,756 | 27,417 | 29,917 | 34,926 | 35,753 | 36,746 | 38,744 |
From April 2003 the Public Record Office joined together with the Historical Manuscripts Commission.
Table 4: Capital Budget for the Public Record Office (£'000)
| 1998-99 Outturn | 1999-00 Outturn | 2000-01 Outturn | 2001-02 Outturn | 2002-03 Estimated Outturn | 2003-04 Plans | 2004-05 Plans | 2005-06 Plans | |
| Capital spending: | ||||||||
| Voted: Promoting the study of the past in order to inform the present and future by selecting, preserving and making publicly available public records of historical value and by encouraging high standards of care and public access for archives of historical value outside the public records. |
||||||||
| RfR1 A Public Record Office | 1,157 | 1,654 | 1,210 | 1,324 | 3,360 | 3,300 | 3,300 | 3,300 |
| RfR1 B Historical Manuscripts Commission | 11 | 12 | 12 | 14 | 163 | 15 | 15 | 15 |
| Total non-voted: | ||||||||
| The cost of running the Public Records System | ||||||||
| Total non-voted | ||||||||
| Total Capital Budget | 1,168 | 1,666 | 1,222 | 1,338 | 3,523 | 3,315 | 3,315 | 3,315 |
| of which:
Voted |
1,168 | 1,666 | 1,222 | 1,338 | 3,523 | 3,315 | 3,315 | 3,315 |
| Other non-voted | ||||||||
| and of which:
Central government own spending |
1,168 | 1,666 | 1,222 | 1,338 | 3,523 | 3,315 | 3,315 | 3,315 |
| NB Voted net resource outturn in Estimate of Public Record Office | ||||||||
| Capital DEL | 1,168 | 1,666 | 1,222 | 1,338 | 3,523 | 3,315 | 3,315 | 3,315 |
| Total net capital in Estimate | 1,168 | 1,666 | 1,222 | 1,338 | 3,523 | 3,315 | 3,315 | 3,315 |
From April 2003 the Public Record Office joined together with the Historical Manuscripts Commission.
Table 5: Capital Assets (£'000)
| Freehold land and buildings | Equipment | Computers | Total | |
| Net book value at 31 March 2002 | 84,501 | 6,463 | 1,750 | 92,714 |
Table 5 relates exclusively to the Public Record Office.
Table 6: Administration Costs for the Public Record Office (£'000)
| 1998-99 Outturn | 1999-00 Outturn | 2000-01 Outturn | 2001-02 Outturn | 2002-03 Estimated Outturn | 2003-04 Plans | 2004-05 Plans | 2005-06 Plans | |
| Gross administration costs: | ||||||||
| Other | 15,330 | 17,495 | 19,167 | 22,611 | 25,026 | - | - | - |
| Paybill | 10,200 | 10,577 | 10,920 | 11,823 | 13,500 | - | - | - |
| Total gross administration costs | 25,530 | 28,072 | 30,087 | 34,434 | 38,526 | 37,353 | 38,346 | 40,344 |
| Related administration cost receipts | -1,861 | -2,316 | -2,670 | -4,517 | -3,600 | -1,600 | -1,600 | -1,600 |
| Total net administration costs | 23,669 | 25,756 | 27,417 | 29,917 | 34,926 | 35,753 | 36,746 | 38,744 |
| Total net administration costs by activity: | ||||||||
| The net administrative cost of running the Public Records System | 23,669 | 25,756 | 27,417 | 29,917 | 34,926 | 35,753 | 36,746 | 38,744 |
| Total net administration costs | 23,669 | 25,756 | 27,417 | 29,917 | 34,926 | 35,753 | 36,746 | 38,744 |
From April 2003 the Public Record Office joined together with the Historical Manuscripts Commission. Table 6 includes an element in respect of the Historical Manuscripts Commission. Details can be found in Tables 3 and 4.
Table 7: Staff Numbers for the Public Record Office
| 1998-99 Outturn | 1999-00 Outturn | 2000-01 Outturn | 2001-02 Outturn | 2002-03 Outturn | 2003-04 Plans | 2004-05 Plans | 2005-06 Plans | |
| Civil Service full-time equivalents | 424 | 430 | 420 | 455 | 477 | 477 | 477 | 477 |
| Overtime | 10 | 10 | 10 | 12 | 12 | 13 | 13 | 13 |
| Casuals | 22 | 16 | 9 | 12 | 12 | 25 | 25 | 25 |
| Total | 456 | 456 | 439 | 479 | 502 | 515 | 515 | 515 |
Table 7 relates exclusively to the Public Record Office.
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