Written question asked by Gerald Howarth (Conservative) on Tuesday, 23 November 2004, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Thursday, 9 December 2004. It was answered by Ivor Caplin (Labour) on Thursday, 9 December 2004 on behalf of the Ministry of Defence.

Ministry of Defence

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, when his Department discovered that certain of its files had become contaminated by asbestos; and what action was taken in response to enable those files to be used.

Answer: Mr. Gerald Howarth: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence when his Department discovered that certain of its files had become contaminated by asbestos; and what action was taken in response to enable those files to be used. [199854] Mr. Caplin: The presence of asbestos in the basement area of the Old War Office Building was confirmed in May 2003. A decision was immediately made to safeguard the information contained in the records stored there and during the period June to December 2003 the files were progressively listed and packed to ensure that they could be safely handled. At the same time it was possible to implement the decontamination of the affected area of the building. Some 3,000 crates of affected files were transferred to another secure location during May 2004. Options open to the MOD to enable files to be safely handled so that access to the information in them can be restored were under consideration from the beginning. In August 2004, the departmental records officer decided that their development should be overseen by a formal project board.

Secondary information

Type: Written question
Reference: 199854; 428 c686W;428 c686-7W
Session: 2004-05
Subjects: Asbestos Archives Contamination Ministry of Defence Departmental records
Link: View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk