Written question asked by Lord Hanningfield (Conservative), in the House of Lords. It was answered by Lord Davies of Oldham (Labour) on Thursday, 2 November 2006.

Official Documents: Twelvetrees Crescent Warehouse

Question: What files were lost by the Millennium Commission in the fire at the paper records warehouse in Twelvetrees Crescent, London, in July; what impact these losses will have on the commission; whether any work or projects will be affected, delayed or abandoned as a result of the fire; and what costs were incurred.

Answer: The Millennium Commission lost 509 of some 2,000 boxes of files at the paper records warehouse in Twelvetrees Crescent. The losses included documents that had been prepared for the National Archive and these have had to be reproduced, with associated additional staff costs. However, copies of all these documents exist in the commission's offices and this work is at hand. The commission holds files in archives for three main purposes: to address statutory requirements for record retention; to address a potential business need related to the monitoring of lottery-funded assets and to reduce office costs by optimising storage. It is not possible to assess the impact of the loss of these records until a particular scenario arises which requires access to records that have been destroyed. Some of the records lost in the fire were scheduled for destruction at the end of the commission's life, currently expected before the end of 2006. None of the commission's other work or construction projects has been affected or delayed by these losses.

Secondary information

Type: Written question
Reference: 7950; 686 c65WA
Session: 2005-06
Subjects: Costs Archives Greater London Fires Millennium Commission Warehouses
Contains statistics: Yes
Link: View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk