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Bishop, 1903. Cat ref: COPY 1/465
Documents

Documents

Government policy on archives

The Government Policy on Archives was issued by the Lord Chancellor as a command paper on 2 December 1999 [Cm 4516].

This was the first time that the government departments and expert advisers represented on the Inter-Departmental Archives Committee (IDAC) had worked together on the production of a policy statement.

The aim of the policy was to help archival institutions throughout the United Kingdom to take advantage of the unprecedented opportunities offered by information and communications technology and to achieve a much higher public profile in the information age. The policy provided objectives and expected outcomes to build on the sector's strengths and address its development needs, to enable it to make its full contribution to society and to Government policy. The Inter-Departmental Archives Committee recommended that an accompanying action plan should be agreed to provide a framework for the activities of the leading archive bodies, both inside and outside Government to deliver the high level outcomes and objectives outlined in the policy.

The action plan was published in 2002. Broadly it has achieved the objectives set out in the Government Policy on Archives. In 2004 the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council published 'Listening to the Past, Speaking to the Future', a report by the Archives Task Force that proposed further recommendations for widening access to new audiences.

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