Lord Chancellor's Department: Committee on Modern Public Records

LCO 27

1978-1981

The records in this series include the agenda, minutes and circulated papers, invited comments of representative bodies and individual experts together with letters, evidence and memoranda from other bodies and individuals and drafts of the Committee on Modern Public Records's report.

Nominal and subject card indexes are to be found in LCO 27/190-191 and LCO 27/192-193.

Public Record(s)

English

194 file(s)

Open unless otherwise stated

Following a decision by the Government to set up an inquiry into the workings of certain provisions of the Public Records Acts 1958 and 1967 the Lord Chancellor appointed a committee under the chairmanship of Sir Duncan Wilson on 18 August 1978. Other members of the committee were Professor Margaret Gowing and Mr (later Sir) Paul Osmond.

The terms of reference were to review the arrangements for giving effect to those provisions of the Public Records Acts 1958 and 1967 which relate to the selection of records for permanent preservation and to subsequent public access to them in the light of: 1) the requirements of public business, of historical and other researchers, and of other users of public records generally, for an efficient records service; 2) the volume of records generated by government departments; 3) technological changes in the format and storage of records; and 4) the staff and accommodation costs of maintaining public records and the need for economy in the uses of resources; and to make recommendations. The report of the committee was published in March 1981 (Cmnd.8204). The Government's response to the recommendations of the committee was issued as a white paper in March 1982 (Cmnd.8531).