To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, how many and what proportion of records relating to the Royal Family eligible for release under the 30 year rule were withheld in (a) 2007, (b) 2017, (c) 2020, (d) 2022 and (e) 2024.

The total number of records relating to the Royal Family that have been withheld, or redacted, under section 37 of the Freedom of Information Act can be reported on, with the number of exemptions relating to the Royal Family made under section 37 for each of the years cited being as follows:

2007: 0

2017: 97

2020: 80

2022: 35

2024: 46

However, records transferred in these years would not date from 30 years previously as public records are now due for transfer 20 years after their creation. Under the timetable for transitioning to the 20-year rule between 2013-2022, records dating from 1987-1994 were processed between 2015-2018. Details of exemptions made under section 37 on this basis are as follows:

2007 (1977 records): 0

2015 (1987 records): 33

2016 (1990 records): 58

2017 (1992 records): 97

2018 (1994 records): 84

It should be noted, however, that The National Archives cannot determine how many Royal Family-related records may have been withheld under other exemptions because it is not possible to search the actual content of all records held by The National Archives to identify those that include information relating to a particular subject. This is because searches in The National Archives’ Discovery catalogue are based on the terms used in catalogue descriptions rather than the full content of records. As a result, searching for a broad term such as “Royal Family” will not necessarily identify all relevant records, as many records may instead be catalogued under the name of an individual, institution, title, event, or other descriptive term.

Consequently, TNA officials are unable to provide a comprehensive figure for such records or express them as a proportion of the total number of records relating to the Royal Family.