PUBLIC RECORDS ACT 1958 (c. 51)
An Act to make new
provision with respect to public records and the Public Record Office, and for
connected purposes. [
Be it enacted by the Queens most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows :-
1. - (1) The
direction of the Public Record Office shall be transferred from the Master of
the Rolls to the Lord Chancellor, and the Lord Chancellor shall be generally
responsible for the execution of this Act and shall supervise the care and preservation
of public records.
(2) There shall be an Advisory Council on Public Records to advise the Lord
Chancellor on matters concerning public records in general and, in particular,
on those aspects of the work of the Public Record Office which affect members
of the public who make use of the facilities provided by the Public Record
Office.
The Master of the Rolls shall be chairman of the said Council and the remaining members of the Council shall be appointed by the Lord Chancellor on such terms as he may specify.
(3) The Lord Chancellor shall in every year lay before both Houses of Parliament a report on the work of the Public Record Office, which shall include any report made to him by the Advisory Council on Public Records.
2. - (1) The Lord Chancellor may appoint a Keeper of Public Records to take charge under his direction of the Public Record Office and of the records therein and may, with the concurrence of the Treasury as to numbers and conditions of service, appoint such other persons to serve in the Public Record Office as he may think fit.
(2) The Keeper of Public Records and other persons appointed under this Act shall receive such salaries and remuneration as the Treasury may from time to time direct.
(3) It shall be the duty of the Keeper of Public Records to take all practicable steps for the preservation of records under his charge.
(4) The Keeper of
Public Records shall have power to do all such things as appear to him
necessary or expedient for maintaining the utility of the Public Record Office
and may in particular-
(a) compile and make available indexes and guides to, and calendars and texts
of, the records in the Public Record Office;
(b) prepare publications concerning the activities of and facilities provided
by the Public Record Office;
(c) regulate the conditions under which members of the public may inspect
public and other records or use the other facilities of the Public Record
Office;
(d) provide for the making and authentication of copies of and extracts from
records required as evidence in legal proceedings or for other purposes;
(e) accept responsibility for the safe keeping of records other than public
records;
(f) make arrangements for the separate housing of films and other records which
have to be kept under special conditions;
(g) lend records, in a case where the Lord Chancellor gives his approval, for
display at commemorative exhibitions or for other special purposes;
(h) acquire records and accept gifts and loans.
(5) The Lord Chancellor may by regulations made with the concurrence of the
Treasury and contained in a statutory instrument prescribe the fees which may
be charged for the inspection of records under the charge of the Keeper of
Public Records, for authenticated copies or extracts from such records and for
other services afforded by officers of the Public Record Office and authorise
the remission of the fees in prescribed cases.
(6) Fees received under the last foregoing subsection shall be paid into the
Exchequer.
3.- (1) It shall be
the duty of every person responsible for public records of any description
which are not in the Public Record Office or a place of deposit appointed by
the Lord Chancellor under this Act to make arrangements for the selection of
those records which ought to be permanently preserved and for their
safe-keeping.
(2) Every person shall perform his duties under this section under the guidance
of the Keeper of Public Records and the said Keeper shall be responsible for
co-ordinating and supervising all action taken under this section.
(3) All public records created before the year sixteen hundred and sixty shall
be included among those selected for permanent preservation.
(4) Public records selected for permanent preservation under this section shall
be transferred not later than thirty years after their creation either to the
Public Record Office or to such other place of deposit appointed by the Lord
Chancellor under this Act as the Lord Chancellor may direct:
Provided that any records may be retained after the said period if, in the
opinion of the person who is responsible for them, they are required for
administrative purposes or ought to be retained for any other special reason
and, where that person is not the Lord Chancellor, the Lord Chancellor has been
informed of the facts and given his approval.
(5) The Lord Chancellor may, if it appears to him in the interests of the
proper administration of the Public Record Office, direct that the transfer of
any class of records under this section shall be suspended until arrangements
for their reception have been completed.
(6) Public records which, following the arrangements made in pursuance of this
section, have been rejected as not required for permanent preservation shall be
destroyed or, subject in the case of records for which some person other than
the Lord Chancellor is responsible, to the approval of the Lord Chancellor,
disposed of in any other way.
(7) Any question as to the person whose duty it is to make arrangements under
this section with respect to any class of public records shall be referred to
the Lord Chancellor for his decision.
(8) The provisions of this section shall not make it unlawful for the person responsible for any public record to transmit it to the Keeper of the Records of Scotland or to the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland.
4. (1) If it
appears to the Lord Chancellor that a place outside the Public Record Office
affords suitable facilities for the safe-keeping and preservation of records
and their inspection by the public he may, with the agreement of the authority
who will be responsible for records deposited in that place, appoint it as a
place of deposit as respects any class of public records selected for permanent
preservation under this Act.
(2) In choosing a place of deposit under this section for public records of-
(a) courts of quarter sessions or magistrates'
courts, or
(b) courts of coroners of counties or boroughs, the Lord Chancellor
shall have regard to any arrangements made by the person for the time being
responsible for the records with respect to the place where those records are
to be kept and, where he does not follow any such arrangements, shall, so far
as practicable, proceed on the principle that the records of any such court
ought to be kept in the area of the county] or county borough comprising the
area for which the court acts or where it sits, except in a case where the
authorities or persons appearing to the Lord Chancellor to be mainly concerned
consent to the choice of a place of deposit elsewhere.
(3) The Lord Chancellor may at any time direct that public records shall be
transferred from the Public Record Office to a place of deposit appointed under
this section or from such a place of deposit to the Public Record Office or
another place of deposit.
(4) Before appointing a place of deposit under this section as respects public
records of a class for which the Lord Chancellor is not himself responsible, he
shall consult with the Minister or other person, if any, who appears to him to
be primarily concerned and, where the records are records of a court of quarter
sessions[i]
the records of which are, apart from the provisions of this Act, subject to the
directions of a custos rotulorum,
the Lord Chancellor shall consult him.
(5) Public records in the Public Record Office shall be in the custody of the
Keeper of Public Records and public records in a place of deposit appointed
under this Act shall be in the custody of such officer as the Lord Chancellor
may appoint.
(6) Public records in the Public Record Office or other place of deposit
appointed by the Lord Chancellor under this Act shall be temporarily returned
at the request of the person by whom or department or office from which they
were transferred.
5. - (1) Public records in the Public Record Office, other than
those to which members of the public had access before their transfer to the
Public Record Office, shall not be available for public inspection until they
have been in existence for fifty years or such other period, either longer or
shorter, as the Lord Chancellor may, with the approval, or at the request, of
the Minister or other person, if any, who appears to him to be primarily
concerned, for the time being prescribe as respects any particular class of
public records.
(2) Without prejudice to the generality of the foregoing subsection, if it
appears to the person responsible for any public records which have been
selected by him under section three of this Act for permanent preservation that
they contain information which was obtained from members of the public under
such conditions that the opening of those records to the public after the
period determined under the foregoing subsection would or might constitute a
breach of good faith on the part of the Government or on the part of the
persons who obtained the information, he shall inform the Lord Chancellor
accordingly and those records shall not be available in the Public Record
Office for public inspection even after the expiration of the said period
except in such circumstances and subject to such conditions, if any, as the
Lord Chancellor and that person may approve, or, if the Lord Chancellor and
that person think fit, after the expiration of such further period as they may
approve.
(3) Subject to the foregoing provisions
of this section, subject to the enactments set out in the Second Schedule to
this Act (which prohibit the disclosure of certain information obtained from
the public except for certain limited purposes) and subject to any other Act or
instrument whether passed or made before or after this Act which contains a
similar prohibition, it shall be the duty of the Keeper of Public Records to
arrange that reasonable facilities are available to the public for inspecting
and obtaining copies of public records in the Public Record Office.
(4) Subsection (1) of this section shall not make it unlawful for the Keeper of
Public Records to permit a person to inspect any records if he has obtained
special authority in that behalf given by an officer of a government department
or other body, being an officer accepted by the Lord Chancellor as qualified to
give such an authority.
(5) The Lord Chancellor shall, as respects all public records in places of
deposit appointed by him under this Act outside the Public Record Office,
require arrangements to be made for their inspection by the public comparable
to those made for public records in the Public. Record Office and subject to
restrictions corresponding with those contained in the foregoing provisions of
this section.
6. If, as respects any public records in the Public Record Office or any place of deposit appointed under this Act, it appears to the Keeper of Public Records that they are duplicated by other public records which have been selected for permanent preservation or that there is some other special reason why they should not be permanently preserved, he may, with the approval of the Lord Chancellor and of the Minister or other person, if any, who appears to the Lord Chancellor to be primarily concerned with public records of the class in question, authorise the destruction of those records or, with that approval, their disposal in any other way.
7. (1) Subject to the provisions of this section, the Master of the Rolls shall continue to be responsible for, and to have custody of, the records of the Chancery of England, including those created after the commencement of this Act, and shall have power to determine where the said records or any of them are for the time being to be deposited.
(2) Section three and subsection (6) of section four of this Act shall not apply to any of the said records but if and so long as any of them are deposited in the Public Record Office those records shall be in the custody of the Keeper of Public Records and subject to the directions of the Lord Chancellor as in the case of any other records in the Public Record Office.
(3) Subject to the foregoing provisions of this section, the Master of the Rolls shall not have charge and superintendence over, or custody of, any public records and any public records which at the commencement of this Act were in the custody of the Master of the Rolls (other than records of the Chancery of England) shall thereafter be in the custody of the Keeper of Public Records or such other officer as the Lord Chancellor may from time to time appoint.
8. (1) The Lord Chancellor shall be responsible for the public
records of every court of record or magistrates' court which are not in the
Public Record Office or a place of deposit appointed by him under this Act and
shall have power to determine in the case of any such records the officer in
whose custody they are for the time being to be:
(2) The power of the President of the Probate Division of the high Court under section one hundred and seventy of the Supreme Court of
Judicature (Consolidation) Act, 1925, to
direct where the wills and other documents mentioned in that section are to be
deposited and preserved (exercisable with the consent of the Lord Chancellor)
shall be transferred to the Lord Chancellor.
(3) Where it appears to the President of the Probate Division that the copies
of calendars of grants prepared under section one hundred and fifty-six of the
Supreme Court of Judicature (Consolidation) Act, 1925, which are kept in a
particular district probate registry, or such of those calendars as were issued
before a particular date, are not being used by members of the public to any
appreciable extent and that, having regard to the facilities for consulting
copies of the calendars kept elsewhere, it is reasonable to withdraw the public
right of inspection of those copies of calendars in that particular probate
registry, he may direct that subsection (3) of the said section one hundred and
fifty-six shall cease to apply to those copies and, if he thinks fit, that they
shall be transferred to and kept for public inspection in such other place as
he may direct.
In this subsection the reference to a district probate registry includes a
reference to the office of the commissary clerk of Edinburgh and the probate
registry in Belfast.
(4) Where any private documents have remained in the custody of a court in
England or Wales for more than fifty years without being claimed, the Keeper of
Public Records may, with the approval of the Master of the Rolls, require the
documents to be transferred to the Public Record Office and thereupon the
documents shall become public records for the purposes of this Act.
(5) Section three of this Act shall not apply to such of the records of ecclesiastical courts described in paragraph (n) of sub-paragraph (1) of paragraph 4 of the First Schedule to this Act as are not held in any office of the Supreme Court or in the Public Record Office, but, if the Lord Chancellor after consulting the President of the Probate Division so directs as respects any of those records, those records shall be transferred to such place of deposit as may be appointed by the Lord Chancellor and shall thereafter be in the custody of such officer as may be so appointed.
(6) The public records which at the commencement of this Act are in the custody of the University of Oxford and which are included in the index a copy of which was transmitted to the principal probate registrar under section two of the Oxford University Act 1860, shall not be required to be transferred under the last foregoing subsection but the Lord Chancellor shall make arrangements with the University of Oxford as to the conditions under which those records may be inspected by the public.
9. (1) The legal validity of any
record shall not be affected by its removal under the provisions of this Act,
or of the Public Record Office Acts 1838 to 1898, or by any provisions in those
Acts with respect to its legal custody.
(2) A copy of or extract from a public record in the Public Record Office
purporting to be examined and certified as true and authentic by the proper
officer and to be sealed or stamped with the seal of the Public Record Office
shall be admissible as evidence in any proceedings without any further or other
proof thereof if the original record would have been admissible as evidence in
those proceedings.
In this section the reference to the proper officer is a reference to the
Keeper of Public Records or any other officer of the Public Record Office
authorised in that behalf by the Keeper of Public Records, and, in the case of
copies and extracts made before the commencement of this Act, the deputy keeper
of the records or any assistant record keeper appointed under the Public Record
Office Act 1838.
10. (1) In this Act "public
records" has the meaning assigned to it by the First Schedule to this Act
and "records" includes not only written records but records conveying
information by any other means whatsoever.
(2) Where records created at different dates are for administrative purposes
kept together in one file or other assembly all the records in that file or
other assembly shall be treated for the purposes of this Act as having been
created when the latest of those records was created.
11. The Public Record Office Acts, 1838 to 1898, shall cease to have effect and the enactments mentioned in the Third Schedule to this Act shall have effect subject to the amendments there specified, being amendments consequential on the provisions of this section.
12. (1) It shall
be lawful for any government department or other body or person having the
custody of any public records relating exclusively or mainly to Northern
Ireland to transmit those records to the Public Record Office of Northern
Ireland.
(2) No limitation or restriction imposed by virtue of any enactment on the
powers of the Parliament of Northern Ireland shall preclude that Parliament
from passing legislation, in relation to courts or tribunals whose jurisdiction
extends only to Northern Ireland, for the purposes similar to the purposes of subsection
(4) of section eight of this Act.
13. (1) This Act
may be cited as the Public Records Act 1958.
(2) The enactments specified in the Fourth Schedule to this Act shall be
repealed to the extent specified in the third column of that schedule.
(3) This Act shall come into force on the first day of January, nineteen
hundred and fifty-nine.
SCHEDULES
FIRST SCHEDULE
1. The provisions of this Schedule shall have effect for determining what are public records for the purposes of this Act.
2.- (1) Subject to the provisions of
this paragraph, administrative and departmental records belonging to Her
Majesty, whether in the United Kingdom or elsewhere, in right of Her Majesty's
Government in the United Kingdom and, in particular,-
(a) records of, or held in, any department of Her Majesty's Government in the
United Kingdom, or
(b) records of any office, commission or other body or establishment whatsoever
under Her Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom,
shall be public
records.
(2) Sub-paragraph (1) of this paragraph shall not apply-
(a) to records of any government department or body which is wholly or mainly
concerned with Scottish affairs, or which carries on its activities wholly or
mainly in Scotland, or
(b) to registers or certified copies of entries in registers being registers or
certified copies kept or deposited in the General Register Office under or in
pursuance of any enactment, whether past or future, which provides for the
registration of births, deaths, marriages, or adoptions, or
(c) except so far as provided by paragraph 4 of this Schedule, to records of
the Duchy of Lancaster, or
(d) to records of the office of the Public Trustee relating to individual
trusts.
3.- (1) Without prejudice to the generality of
sub-paragraph (1) of the last foregoing paragraph, the administrative and
departmental records of bodies and establishments set out in the Table at the
end of this paragraph shall be public records, whether or not they are records
belonging to Her Majesty.
The provisions of this paragraph shall not be taken as applying to records in
any museum or gallery mentioned in the said Table which form part of its
permanent collections (that is to say records which the museum or gallery has
acquired otherwise than by transfer from or arrangements with a government
department).
TABLE
PART I
BODIES AND ESTABLISHMENTS UNDER GOVERNMENT DEPARTMENTS
Responsible Government Department |
|
Ministry of
Agriculture, Fisheries and Food. |
Agricultural Wages Board. Agricultural Wages Committees. Organisation known as the "National Farm Survey". Official seed testing station for England and Wales. |
Air Ministry
Ministry of
Education |
Meteorological Office. Victoria and Albert Museum. |
Ministry of Health
|
National Health Service other than local health authorities. National health service hospitals except - records of endowments passing to Boards of
Governors under section seven of the National Health Service Act 1946. Welsh Board of Health. |
Home Office |
Office of Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis. Office of Receiver for the Metropolitan Police District. |
Ministry of Labour
and National Service. |
National Dock Labour Board. |
Ministry of Pensions
and National Insurance |
National Insurance Advisory Committee. Industrial Injuries Advisory Council. National Insurance and Industrial Injuries Joint Authorities. Workmen's Compensation Supplementation Board. Pneumoconiosis and Byssinosis Benefit Board. |
Ministry of Transport and Civil Aviation. |
Air Transport Advisory Council. Air Registration Board. |
PART II
OTHER ESTABLISHMENTS AND ORGANISATIONS
Anglo-Egyptian
Resettlement Board.
British Museum (including the Natural History Museum).
Catering Wages Commission.
Coal Industry Social Welfare Organisation.
Crown Agents for Overseas Governments and Administrations except when acting
for governments or authorities outside Her Majesty's dominions.
Development Commission.
Imperial War Museum.
Irish Sailors' and Soldiers' Land Trust.
London Museum.
Monopolies
Commission.
National Coal Board.
National Gallery.
National Maritime Museum.
National Portrait Gallery.
National Savings Committee.
Office of Registrar
of Restrictive Trading Agreements.
Remploy Limited.
Royal Greenwich Observatory .
Tate Gallery.
Trustee Savings Banks Inspection Committee.
United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority.
University Grants
Committee.
Wallace Collection
War Works Commission
Any body established for the purpose of determining the boundaries of constituencies of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, or of local authorities in England or Wales.
Records of courts and tribunals
4. (1)
Subject to the provisions of this paragraph, records of the following
descriptions shall be public records for the purposes of this Act:-
(a) records of, or held in any department of, the
Supreme Court (including any court held under a commission of assize);
(b) records of county courts and of any other superior or inferior court of
record established since the passing of the County Courts Act 1846;
(c) records of the Chancery Court of the County Palatine of Lancaster
and of the Chancery Court of the County Palatine of Durham ;
(d) records of courts of quarter sessions;
(e) records of magistrates' courts;
(f) records of coroners' courts;
(g) records of courts-martial held whether within or outside the United Kingdom
by any of Her Majesty's forces raised in the United Kingdom;
(h) records of naval courts held whether within or outside the United Kingdom
under the enactments relating to merchant shipping;
(i) records of any court exercising jurisdiction held
by Her Majesty within a country outside Her dominions;
(j) records of any tribunal (by whatever name called)-
(i) which
has jurisdiction connected with any functions of a department of Her Majesty's
Government in the United Kingdom; or
(ii) which has jurisdiction in
proceedings to which such a government department is a party or to hear appeals
from decisions of such a government department;
(k) records of the Lands Tribunal or of any Rent Tribunal or Local Valuation
Court;
(l) records of the Industrial Court, of the
Industrial Disputes Tribunal, and of the National Arbitration Tribunal (which
was replaced by the Industrial Disputes Tribunal);
(m) records of umpires and deputy-umpires appointed under the National Service
Act 1948, or the Reinstatement in Civil Employment Act 1944;
(n) records of ecclesiastical courts when exercising the testamentary and
matrimonial jurisdiction removed from them by the Court of Probate Act 1857,
and the Matrimonial Causes Act 1857, respectively;
(o) records of such other courts or tribunals (by whatever name called) as the
Lord Chancellor may by order contained in a statutory instrument specify.
(2) This paragraph shall not apply to any court or tribunal whose
jurisdiction extends only to Scotland or Northern Ireland.
(3) In this paragraph "records" includes records of any proceedings in the court or tribunal in question and includes rolls, writs, books, decrees, bills, warrants and accounts of, or in the custody of, the court or tribunal in question.
Records of the Chancery of
5. The records of the Chancery of England shall be public records for the purposes of this Act.
Records in Public Record Office
6. Without prejudice
to the foregoing provisions of this Schedule, public records for the purposes
of this Act shall include-
(a) all records within the meaning of the Public Record Office Act 1838, or to
which that Act was applied, which at the commencement of this Act are in the
custody of the Master of the Rolls in pursuance of that Act, and
(b) all records (within the meaning of the
said Act or to which that Act was applied) which at the commencement of this
Act are in the Public Record Office and, in pursuance of the said Act, under
the charge and superintendence of the Master of the Rolls, and
(c) all records forming part of the same series as any series of documents
falling under sub-paragraph (a) or sub-paragraph (b) of this paragraph.
Power to add further categories of records and to determine cases of doubt
7. -(1) Without
prejudice to the Lord Chancellor's power of making orders under paragraph 4 of
this Schedule, Her Majesty may by Order in Council direct that any description
of records not falling within the foregoing provisions of this Schedule shall
be treated as public records for the purposes of this Act but no recommendation
shall be made to Her Majesty in Council to make an Order under this
sub-paragraph unless a draft of the Order has been laid before Parliament and
approved by resolution of each House of Parliament.
(2) A question whether any records or description of records are public records
for the purposes of this Act shall be referred to and determined by the Lord
Chancellor and the Lord Chancellor shall include his decisions on such
questions in his annual report to Parliament and shall from time to time
compile and publish lists of the departments, bodies, establishments, courts
and tribunals comprised in paragraphs 2, 3 and 4 of this Schedule and lists
describing more particularly the categories of records which are, or are not,
public records as defined in this Schedule.
Interpretation
8. It is hereby declared that any description of government department, court, tribunal or other body or establishment in this Schedule by reference to which a class of public records is framed extends to a government department, court, tribunal or other body or establishment, as the case may be, which has ceased to exist, whether before or after the passing of this Act.
SECOND SCHEDULE
ENACTMENTS
PROHIBITING DISCLOSURE OF INFORMATION OBTAINED FROM THE PUBLIC
The Land Registration Act, 1925 The War Damage Act, 1943 |
|
Section 112 |
THIRD SCHEDULE
CONSEQUENTIAL AMENDMENTS
The Forgery Act. 1913 (3 & 4 Geo. 5 c. 27)
In paragraph (d) of subsection (2) of section three the reference to a certified copy of a record purporting to be signed by an assistant keeper of the Public Records in England shall include a reference to a certified copy of a record purporting to be signed by the Keeper of Public Records or any officer of the Public Record Office authorised in that behalf by the Keeper of Public Records.
The Public Records (Scotland) Act, 1937 (1 Edw. 8
& I Geo. 6. c. 43)
In subsection (1) of section five the proviso (which requires the consent of the Master of the Rolls to the transmission of certain public records to the Keeper of the Records of Scotland) shall cease to have effect.
The copyright Act,
1956 (4 & 5 Eliz. 2. c. 74)
As respects any reproduction made after the commencement of this Act, the reference in paragraph (a) of subsection (1) of section forty-two to records of the description there mentioned shall be taken as a reference to public records which are open to public inspection in pursuance of the provisions of this Act.
FOURTH SCHEDULE
Repeals
Session and Chapter |
Short Title |
Extent of Repeal |
1& 2 Vict. c. 94 |
The Public Record Office Act, 1838. |
The whole Act. |
Table of Statutes referred to in this Act.
The Public Record
Office Act, 1838. |
1& 2 Vict. c. 94 |
|
|
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