MOD ALREADY TRANSFERRING WW2 SERVICE FILES TO UK NATIONAL ARCHIVES 2021

I’m not even sure there is a separate form for NoK anymore, John, but I could be wrong - or stoopid.

 

I've had eyes on 3 new sets of records sent by families who I recommended apply for these over a year ago now. I was amazed to see the colour pdfs with on average 35-40 pages. All medical history was included and only some personal next of kin details redacted.

The trouble is........now I have to start working on identifying the British and Indian General Hospitals nominated in the medical pages!!

 

You're probably spot on Martin. My granddad's records, and my wife's granddad's record, are the only NoK applications I've ever made, and that was when it was all done via the Royal Mail and hard copy applications.

Best of luck Steve but it really is hit and miss with what you get from TNA.....sometimes all medical details are redacted, sometimes they're all included

 

To research "old" interpretations by Kew and MoD of legislation covering archives use the UK Govt Web Archive:

Archive Timeline - UK Government Web Archive

Using this, and going back nearly ten years:

UK Government Web Archive

UK Government Web Archive

The old forms available from the last link.

Extract:

"Service records of deceased service personnel
The MOD is the custodian of the records of service of service personnel and Home Guard records until they are opened to general public access at the National Archives.
Subject to the payment of an administration fee of £30 per record and provision of a death certificate (except where death was in service), certain information can be provided from the records of service of service personnel on request under the publication scheme.
All information contained in the Home Guard records will normally be provided in full.
The scheme allows for information in these records to be exempt from the general provisions of the Freedom of Information Act by virtue of section 21(1) of the Act (information accessible to an applicant by other means).
Request for service records of deceased service personnel
Under the scheme, and in recognition of the duty of care owed to the family of the deceased subject, for a period of 25 years following the date of death of the subject and without the consent of the next of kin, MOD will disclose only: etc."

FOI Act section 21:

"21 Information accessible to applicant by other means.

(1) Information which is reasonably accessible to the applicant otherwise than under section 1 is exempt information.

(2) For the purposes of subsection (1)—

(a) information may be reasonably accessible to the applicant even though it is accessible only on payment, and

(b) information is to be taken to be reasonably accessible to the applicant if it is information which the public authority or any other person is obliged by or under any enactment to communicate (otherwise than by making the information available for inspection) to members of the public on request, whether free of charge or on payment."

(3) For the purposes of subsection (1), information which is held by a public authority and does not fall within subsection (2)(b) is not to be regarded as reasonably accessible to the applicant merely because the information is available from the public authority itself on request, unless the information is made available in accordance with the authority’s publication scheme and any payment required is specified in, or determined in accordance with, the scheme."


The UK Cabinet Office issue statistics on FOI requests:

Freedom of Information statistics: July to September 2024 bulletin

In theory there are committees at Kew which work, but the latest trend is that they have decided to not publish their minutes, and have removed the "A to Z" on the website but it can be found on TNA pages from the Web Archive. So nobody knows what they think about Kew being in the doghouse with the Cabinet Office, apart from members.

User Advisory Group - no minutes since March 2024. Members get expenses only. Have been informative on service records in the past.

Advisory Council - no minutes since May 2024. The Master of the Rolls sits on this. Members are paid these days.

Non-Executive Directors - no minutes since July 2024. Members paid, always have been.

 

That's pretty much what I had concluded.

 

I think you're right - and some of the redactions I've seen make me think there is an over-compensation for the amount of sensitive personal data released in the WW1 records.