Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps she is taking to reduce the number of National Archives documents misplaced while on loan to Departments.

Section 4(6) of the Public Records Act 1958 gives departments the right to recall records that they have transferred to The National Archives. In 2018, The National Archives put in place a framework for safeguarding public records that establishes firm controls around such recalls. Officials at The National Archives are unaware of any records going missing since the establishment of this framework.