[SteveB]

Andy

I have seen the more extended thread on the Flypast board but I am not registered there.

It seems to me the key issue is to try to lobby the ex-service associations to give the "right" answer and I am not sure why they would want to support the entrenched position of the AHB.

With regard to some of the points made on Flypast in my view the issue is not about "cost" in the sense expressed there. I am not a lawyer but I find it hard to believe that the provisions of the DPAct in the UK are significantly different from the legislation in Australia, Canada and NZ however I acknowledge that the Human Rights Act in the UK may have an additional unknown (to me) implication.

In my view the key issue in handing over this information to Kew is the implications for the structure of AHB within MoD. Even though AHB is generally unhelpful in responding to the public enquiries about the Casualty Records all of that postal traffic supports a level of staffing that has a knock on into the establishment of the Branch and which, I believe, supports an Air Commodore desk job? In my view that is almost certainly the key issue in "giving away" these records.

Sorry to be so cynical

Steve