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Clare Guidelines for the extended closure of public records were published in the White Paper 'Open Government' in 1993 (Cm 2290), as appendix C. They are available as part of the manual 'Access to Public Records' which is on the PRO website at www.pro.gov.uk under Records Management. Relatively few records are subject to extended closure. We open most case files from court cases at 30 years every year. The normal grounds for extended closure are those of personal sensitivity, where the requirement is that the papers would substantially distress or endanger a living person or his or her descendants. Substantial distress is quite a high hurdle. In addition, files dealing with many sex-related crimes (notably rape) are closed for the lifetime of the individual (or 100 years) under the Criminal Justice Act 1988 and the Sexual Offences (Amendment) Act 1992. All applications for extended closure are considered by the Advisory Council on Public Records before being submitted to the Lord Chancellor. On the face of it, it seems unlikely that a file on a conviction for embezzlement would qualify for extended closure, unless the file contains material that would cause substantial distress that was not revealed in open court. Tim ----------------- Tim Padfield Copyright Officer Curator of Photographs Secretary of the Lord Chancellor's Advisory Council on Public Records Public Record Office Tel: 020-8876 3444 ext 2351 Fax: 020-8392 5295 > ---------- > From: > [log in to unmask][SMTP:[log in to unmask] > uk] > Reply To: [log in to unmask] > Sent: 22 August 2000 10:18 > To: [log in to unmask] > Subject: Advice on closure periods > > Dear Colleagues, > As part of some long overdue housekeeping I have been going through > a box of files which have been closed for various reasons, mostly of > confidentiality. One concerns a case of embezzlement of an > Association's funds by its Secretary. The case occurred in 1954, and the > accused was sentenced to 12 month's imprisonment in 1955. This file > was originally amongst other files of the Association received from its > Chairman as part of a much larger deposit. I'm perfectly happy to keep > this file closed but I would be grateful for any advice on when it might > be > released. Please reply off-list, but I will summarise. > Many thanks. > Clare Brown > > Clare Brown > Archivist > MEC > St. Antony's College, > Oxford OX2 6JF. > > Tel: 01865 284706 > Fax: 01865 311475 > ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This email and any files transmitted with it are confidential and intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom they are addressed. If you have received this email in error please notify the system manager. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%