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Clause 45 of the Freedom of Information Bill requires the Lord Chancellor to issue a code of practice on the management of records. A code has been drafted by the Public Record Office in consultation with the Home Office and other departments involved in the development of Freedom of Information legislation. I am pleased to tell you that the Lord Chancellor has now agreed that it should be made available more widely as a working draft. This working draft of the code is now on our web-site http://www.pro.gov.uk/recordsmanagement/ We have also sent copies to records managers in government, places of deposit for public records, those in a position to assess its appropriateness to the police, health, school and university sectors, and professional associations and individuals with a particular interest in or knowledge of the subject. The first part of the code, dealing with records management, represents a clear step forward for record-keeping across the public sector. Effective records management underpins the rights of access provided by the legislation and the explicit recognition of this in clause 45 presents a real opportunity for improving records management across the public sector. The second part of the code, dealing with the review and transfer of public records to the Public Record Office, places of deposit appointed under section 4 of the Public Records Act 1958, and the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland, is intended to retain the administrative strengths of the current system of transferring records and releasing them to users. The present consultation period ends on 31 August 2000. I am sorry this is such a tight deadline. It is dictated by the need to allow time for the draft to be amended before the Bill is considered by the House of Lords in Committee in the autumn. Please send comments to Kelvin Smith, either by post to the PRO or by email to [log in to unmask] Susan Healy Information Policy Project Manager PRO %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%