Catalogue description Records relating to Records Management in Government and Lord Chancellor's Instruments

In July 1882, a Committee of Inspecting Officers was set up in accordance with rules made by the Master of the Rolls under the Public Record Office Act 1877, to prepare and inspect schedules of documents not considered worthy of permanent preservation. It consisted of not less than three officers, drawn from the staff of the Public Record Office, and also a representative of the department concerned in any given instance.

Following the recommendations of the Grigg Committee on Departmental Records (1954), this system of inspection was replaced in 1956 by the creation within the Public Record Office of a Records Administration Division with a staff of inspecting officers under a Records Administration Officer, and within government departments by Departmental Record Officers (DROs). Disposal of documents under destruction schedules was also replaced in 1959 by a procedure of selection at a first and second review.

Responsibility for the selection and transfer of departmental records to the PRO was placed, and remains, with the departments. Each department appoints a Departmental Record Officer (DRO) to care for its papers from the time they are created or first received until they are destroyed or transferred to the PRO.

The PRO is responsible for overall co-ordination and supervision of the system. This work was carried out until 1991 by the Records Administration Division (RAD). In 1991 RAD's functions were taken over by the new Government Services Division (GSD), renamed Records Management Department (RMD) in 1997.

The advice of PRO staff is supplemented by written guidance of which the PRO Manual of Records Administration is the basic source.

The Public Records Act of 1958 also provided for an Advisory Council on the Public Records. The Advisory Council was appointed under the chairmanship of the Master of the Rolls, to 'advise the Lord Chancellor on matters concerning public records in general and, in particular, on the aspect of the work of the PRO which affects members of the public who make use of the Public Record Office'.

The Public Records Act of 1958 fixed the closure period of public records to 50 years; the Act of 1967 reduced that period to 30 years.

By sections 5(1) and 5(2) of the Public Records Act 1958, as amended by section 1 of the Public Records Act 1967, the Lord Chancellor was empowered, by virtue of Lord Chancellor's Instruments, to vary the closure period to more or less than 30 years.

By section 3(4) of the act, the Lord Chancellor may, for reasons of sensitivity or national security, or because particular records are required for the day to day running of public business, retain records in government departments.

By virtue of section 4(3) of the Public Records Act 1958, the Lord Chancellor may direct that public records be transferred from the Public Record Office to places of deposit.

To enable exercise of these powers, schedules of places to be appointed were drawn up between1960 and 1973. These schedules detailed authorities accepting custodial responsibility for the records, the places of deposit, and the series of records involved.

In 1981, it was decided to revise these schedules, some of which were no longer current because of local government re-organisation in the 1970s. Additionally, it was decided to accompany the schedule by a formal instrument of appointment.