Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, when the facility at the Army Personnel Centre enabling people to trace the service records of their relatives will be fully operational; and when a search made for an individual with Army Service Number 14603451 and date of birth 5 June 1907 can be actioned.

Due to COVID-19, staff at the Army Personnel Centre (APC) in Glasgow have been required to work from home since lockdown. During this time, they have received over 10,000 requests for copies of Service records. Most Service records are in their original hard copy paper format and could not therefore be retrieved from the archives and copied by APC staff working at home. Although APC staff have now started returning to the workplace, it is not possible to say how long it will take to process all the requests they have received. However, the request for a copy of the Service record relating to Army Service Number 14603451 has been completed and was sent to the requester on 28 August.

An online facility is also being developed by the Ministry of Defence to enable individuals to apply for the Service records of deceased military service personnel. This is subject to assessment by the Government Digital Service later this year. If that assessment is positive the online system will be made available to the public via the Government Digital Service platform.