teles
SECRET
44/11
MOUSTRY FEB 1988
CER
Donald Brech Esq
Government Records Co-ordinator
Government Secretariat
Lower Albert Road
HONG KONG
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
London SW1A 2AH
Telephone: 01-211-3215
1 February 1988
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Dear Dow
PUBLIC RECORDS ACT 1958
1.
I am now, at long last, able to answer your letter of 24 August last to Clinton Leeks. It was necessary to put your query to the Lord Chancellor's Department and they have sat on it ever since, although they only needed to agree with
us.
2.
We cannot go along with your argument on the date of microfiche I am afraid. Merely transferring a record on to microfiche does not create a new record any more than taking a photocopy does. Any closure period will run from the date of the latest record on each individual microfiche since the fiche constitutes an assembly under S.10(2) of the Act.
3.
This does not, of course, mean that your sensitive records cannot be protected because SS.3(4) and 5(1) are still available to us. We shall, however, have to take action rather sooner than you might previously have concluded.
bcc: Mr R Footman HKD
SECRET
Your
Par
evec
Miss Patricia M Barnes
Library and Records Department
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