The UK has a law providing that government documents become public after thirty years, which is an admirably strong provision – unless it’s ignored.
Ian Cobain (whose Cruel Britannia is an excellent if harrowing read; hear him on Radio 4’s Start the Week here) reports in the Guardian that
The Foreign Office has unlawfully hoarded more than a million files of historic documents that should have been declassified and handed over to the National Archives, the Guardian has discovered.
The files are being kept at a secret archive at a high-security government communications centre in Buckinghamshire, north of London, where they occupy mile after mile of shelving.
Some of the material does cover plausibly touchy stuff; there are four and a half meters on Burgess and Maclean. On the other hand, there appears also to be stuff that’s probably not so touchy anymore, including the resolution of the Crimean War. It’s the kind of stuff kept secret, one suspects, out of habit.
Cobain explains the FO only had to acknowledge the archive because it lost a suit relating to the Mau Mau – a suit during which they repeatedly claimed that they weren’t keeping a different, smaller secret archive, which eventually they had to admit they were.
The excellent and eminent professor Anthony Badger writes, “it is difficult to overestimate the legacy of suspicion among historians, lawyers and journalists” that results from such concealment.
One might add citizens to that list.
{ 16 comments }
William Burns 10.19.13 at 1:18 am
“Cruel Britannia” is a bit hackneyed as a title. Nick Cohen’s book was less than fifteen years ago.
Manta 10.19.13 at 11:42 am
“The excellent and eminent professor Anthony Badger writes, “it is difficult to overestimate the legacy of suspicion among historians, lawyers and journalists†that results from such concealment.”
At least something good came out of it: those who are not deeply suspicious of government are bad historians, lawyers, and journalists.
Pete 10.19.13 at 1:04 pm
You don’t expect the permanent state to obey the law do you? The entire setup relies on the ability to bury wrongdoing until those in charge have recieved their knighthoods and retired.
What, realistically, can be done about this and the out of control GCHQ? It’s likely that the next government will be Labour. Can we persuade more than Tom Watson to care about this issue?
Manta 10.19.13 at 1:17 pm
It’s not clear to me what “unlawfully” means in this context.
Was (or will be) anybody punished for keeping the papers secret?
If not, the law in question is not worth the paper it’s written on.
chris y 10.19.13 at 2:05 pm
Can we persuade more than Tom Watson to care about this issue?
No. Thank you for your interest.
LizardBreath 10.19.13 at 3:45 pm
I’m now consumed with curiosity about what they’re keeping secret about the resolution of the Crimean War.
Bruce Wilder 10.19.13 at 4:38 pm
The Crimean War was resolved!?!
Tim Wilkinson 10.19.13 at 4:39 pm
Some of the material does cover plausibly touchy stuff
Which is if anything an aggravating rather than mitigating factor.
“it is difficult to overestimate the legacy of suspicion among historians, lawyers and journalistsâ€
I’d say there is far less suspicion among (most) of these types – with the possible exception of lawyers – than is warranted by the general state of secrecy and informal power in Britain.
Tom Slee 10.19.13 at 4:44 pm
The Crimean War was resolved!?!
Not in Berwick-upon-Tweed. Still at war with Russia.
chris y 10.19.13 at 5:00 pm
I’m now consumed with curiosity about what they’re keeping secret about the resolution of the Crimean War.
Attaching secret clauses to treaties which at best changed the emphasis of the published text was common practice until surprisingly recently. In fact it may still go on. How would we know?
Brett Dunbar 10.19.13 at 10:02 pm
Currently we are in a transition from the thirty year rule to a twenty year rule it started this year. This means that for the next few years document releases are occurring every six months rather than annually at the start of the year. The 1974 records were released in June and in the new year the 1975 records will be released.
There isn’t any penalty for failing to release documents, however you could request a court order to get the release and there is a penalty for breaching a court order.
sanbikinoraion 10.20.13 at 9:26 pm
Tom Slee — even the Wikipedia page knows Berwick made peace with Russia almost 50 years ago!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berwick-upon-Tweed#Relations_with_Russia
Compass 10.20.13 at 10:47 pm
Vaguely related, but even on something that should be as harmless and uncontroversial as the Queen’s exercise of her very limited constitutional responsibilities the rules on the release of information have been tightened. That may not sound particularly important, but a blog and longer linked article by Australian legal academic Anne Twomey suggests she has, at least at times, been an interventionist monarch:
http://blogs.usyd.edu.au/cru/2012/05/long_to_reign_over_us_but_how_1.html
ajay 10.22.13 at 4:00 pm
I’m now consumed with curiosity about what they’re keeping secret about the resolution of the Crimean War.
When I was a kid I read Peter Hopkirk’s “On Secret Service East of Constantinople” which notes that the reason behind the fall of Erzerum to the Russians in 1916 is still a secret, and – very unusually – the British file on it is classified under the Hundred-Year Rule rather than the more normal Thirty-Year Rule. All we know is that Lawrence, who knew the secret, is supposed to have remarked to John Buchan that “Greenmantle has more than a flavour of truth to it”. Ever since I read that I have had a subconscious countdown to 2016 running. Almost there…
ajay 10.22.13 at 4:01 pm
Attaching secret clauses to treaties which at best changed the emphasis of the published text was common practice until surprisingly recently.
Additional Protocol III.
Clause XV Subsection iii is to be read sarcastically.
Brett Dunbar 10.25.13 at 6:35 pm
1973 and 1974 were an error, I meant 1983 and 1984.
The legislation sets out the general policy, that internal government information will be released after thirty years. There isn’t a penalty under the legislation for not releasing the documents after this time, there is a penalty for releasing the documents before this time. The legislation establishes a presumption that the information ceases to be sensitive after thirty years, this can be overridden but mostly isn’t.
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