This speech was given at a press event for journalists on 15 December 2004. All information viewed on this day was embargoed until 4 January 2005.
Good morning.
Thank you very much for that introduction, and thank you very much for this invitation.
I am delighted to be here this morning at the National Archives' Press Preview. This has been a regular and eagerly anticipated event since its inception in 1968 and has become an important fixture in the media calendar.
But this Press Preview is different, and I am particularly honoured to be part of it.
Today, we are only a few weeks away from a major change to the way official information is treated.
The current provisions under the Public Records Act - under which public records are closed until they are 30 years old - will be replaced from New Year's Day by a statutory right to know under the Freedom of Information Act.
The so-called 30 year rule will disappear. From January 1st, under the Freedom of Information Act, you will be able to make a request for information at any time and have that information supplied to you unless an exemption applies.
So, this Press Preview is different, and over the next 3 days we will be doing two things.
Tomorrow and Friday, there will be the traditional release of files under the so-called 30 year rule.
But today, you will be able to see some of the first fruits of the new Freedom of Information Act.
Today, under the Freedom of Information Act, we are releasing over 50,000 files that are less than 30 years old.
So, the end of the “30 year rule” means information sooner rather than later. And it is the new Freedom of Information Act that is making this difference.
But before I talk at length about the difference Freedom of Information will make to the way official information is accessed, I want to say a few words about the records being released under the 30 year rule.
Tomorrow and the day after, you will have the opportunity to see around 20,000 records. As you would expect we have Cabinet minutes, papers and files from the Prime Minister's Office and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office from 1974, which, as I am sure you know, was a momentous year in British and world history.
I would now like to focus on the “new”. The Freedom of Information Act.
Today, under the Freedom of Information Act, we are releasing over 50,000 files less than 30 years old. These records have been reviewed by Departments and I am delighted that so many of them have been made available.
These releases under the Freedom of Information Act provide living, breathing proof of the difference that the Act is making and will continue to make over the years ahead.
Public discussion of Freedom of Information has rightly concentrated on access to contemporary information.
But Freedom of Information is also about access to the historical legacy.
This batch of releases cover a surprising range of topics. From research at Porton Down to arranged marriages. They cover subjects topical today, such as Home Office files on a review of the gambling laws, cannabis and the vexed question of whether the BBC comedy Porridge could be filmed inside a prison.
Another prison-related file contains the Metropolitan Police documentation on the escape from Durham Prison of John McVicar.
The Ministry of Defence is releasing a range of records, including ones about the Cod War, the service of the Prince of Wales in the Royal Navy, operations in Northern Ireland and more than thirty files about UFOs.
But we intend to go further. This is only the first of such releases under the Freedom of Information Act, in what will be an ongoing process of proactive release of files.
Next year, the National Archives intends to begin a systematic review of those files which are closed for longer than 30 years and I hope this will lead to further major releases.
One particularly exciting piece of news is that the Foreign and Commonwealth Office is planning to release to the National Archives in the spring of 2005 a batch of secret documents covering the period 1870-1939 from the former Permanent Under-Secretary's Department which was responsible for liaison with the Intelligence Agencies. It will be accompanied by an explanatory publication by FCO Historians. This is the first time that records from this department of the FCO have been released and is a consequence of FoI.
Additionally, I am pleased to be able to announce that the Cabinet Secretaries' notebooks which contain notes made by Cabinet Secretaries at Cabinet Meetings are to be released under FoI when they are thirty years old. The notebooks are different from Cabinet minutes in that they are both more detailed and identify the Cabinet Minister who was speaking. They will be released in tranches of five per year. We expect the first notebooks from 1942 onwards to be transferred to The National Archives during 2005 for release in 2006. A transcript will also be available. I am sure you will appreciate that this is a major step forward as no notebooks have been released before now.
These initiatives will be important in ensuring a steady flow of new information. But of course Freedom of Information also gives you the right to know and to ask to for information directly.
From January 1st, you will be able to write to the National Archives to request information and the National Archives will have 30 working days to respond.
The same procedures apply to records held by other government departments and public authorities - you may write to them to request information and get a reply within 20 days.
I applaud the work of the National Archives in today's excellent achievement.
And I look forward to working with you to making it work.