Catalogue description Foreign and Commonwealth Office: Atlantic and Indian Ocean Department: Registered Files (HG Series)

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Details of FCO 83
Reference: FCO 83
Title: Foreign and Commonwealth Office: Atlantic and Indian Ocean Department: Registered Files (HG Series)
Description:

Records in this series concern UK relations with Gibraltar, the Falkland Islands and Dependencies, the British Antarctic Territory, St Helena, Ascension Island, Tristan da Cunha, the Seychelles and the British Indian Ocean Territory (BIOT). External relations of the Falkland Islands and Dependencies remained the responsibility of the Latin America Department.

For information on the appraisal and selection decisions applied to records produced by the Atlantic and Indian Ocean Department see Operational Selection Policy OSP 13, Britain's Diplomatic Relations, 1973-1996 .

Date: 1970-1972
Arrangement:

Arrangement of files is by original reference within the two annual file cycles.

Related material:

For earlier Gibraltar and Atlantic Island files see FCO 42

For later files on the Seychelles and BIOT see FCO 40

For earlier files on the Seychelles and BIOT see FCO 32

For later files on the Atlantic Islands etc, see FCO 44

For later files on Gibraltar see FCO 86

Held by: The National Archives, Kew
Former reference in its original department: HG file series
Legal status: Public Record(s)
Language: English
Creator:

Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Atlantic and Indian Ocean Department, 1971-1972

Physical description: 181 file(s)
Access conditions: Subject to 30 year closure unless otherwise stated
Immediate source of acquisition:

From 2001 Foreign and Commonwealth Office

Custodial history: Though in theory the records of the Atlantic and Indian Ocean Department passed into the custody of three joint Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO)/Overseas Development Administration (ODA) departments in 1972, in practice the records did not come into the hands of ODA, and remained in FCO custody.
Accumulation dates: 1971-1972
Selection and destruction information: Records selected by the FCO under PRO supervision under section 2.2.2.3 of the PRO acquisition policy, dealing with the history of the conduct of the UK's external relations.
Accruals: Two annual accruals only can be expected.
Administrative / biographical background:

In 1971 a new Foreign and Commonwealth Office Department was formed to handle UK relations with the remaining British dependent territories in the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. The arrangement was short-lived, as in May 1972 a number of joint FCO/Overseas Development Administration departments were set up to handle both internal development and external relations of the remaining dependent territories. The functions of the Atlantic and Indian Ocean Department were divided amongst them. Responsibility for Gibraltar passed to a Gibraltar and General Department; the Falkland Islands, the British Antarctic Territory, Tristan da Cunha, Ascension Island and St Helena passed to a West Indian and Atlantic Department; and the Seychelles and the British Indian Ocean Territory passed to the Hong Kong and Indian Ocean Department.

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