13 Million UK Military Files Withheld Back to WW1

[Observer1940]

I have been told by the PRO / TNA in the past that if files such as Ships Books (Naval Air Stations had a Ships Book) and other Military files (extremely useful for the aviation researcher too) are not in the PRO / TNA then they have not survived?

According to a 10th May 2007 newspaper report in the Nuneaton Weekly Tribune Twenty (20) Million items, 13 Million of which are files were being withheld by the MoD back to WW1 in 2007.

Regarding the UK Military Records Office, Hansard 20 Oct 2004: Column 272WH (discovered during a normal search engine search), says that during the first 9 months of the indexing process at Hayes before the transfer to Swadlincote, 6 million records had already been indexed. Column 269WH refers to about 12 million at the Hayes site requiring to be indexed onto a database.

It makes one wonder, what is being withheld and why the PRO / TNA made those statements?

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Mark