Lord Lester of Herne Hill – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Lester of Herne Hill on 2015-11-17.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what files they hold at Her Majesty’s Government Communications Centre, and what are their plans to make the files held there available to the public during this Parliament.

Baroness Anelay of St Johns

Foreign and Commonwealth (FCO) archive records are held by the FCO rather than Her Majesty’s Government Communications Centre (HMGCC). Most of these archive records are held in the FCO main archive at Hanslope Park in Buckinghamshire, which houses approximately 1.2 million files. The FCO has published its archive file inventory and the review programme for its files. The FCO is committed to complying with the Public Records Act and to full transparency with respect to our record holdings.

HMGCC, which is also at Hanslope Park, is one of the Government’s science and technology establishments, responsible for ensuring that the Government’s communications systems in the UK and around the globe are effective, reliable and secure.