Part 3: The Permanent Archive for the Hillsborough Disaster

Assembled and proposed to be held permanently for the benefit of the families and the public by the Hillsborough Independent Panel

¶Introduction

¶3.1 The Hillsborough Independent Panel's remit, set out in its terms of reference, provides that it should 'in line with established practice, work with the Keeper of Public Records in preparing options for establishing an archive of Hillsborough documentation, including a catalogue of all central governmental and local public agency information and a commentary on any information withheld for the benefit of the families or on legal or other grounds'.

¶3.2 Accordingly, Part 3 of this Report describes the present position regarding the documents provided to the Panel and outlines its recommendations for the Permanent Archive.1 The proposed Permanent Archive for the Hillsborough Disaster covers the period leading up to the events of 15 April 1989 until the private prosecutions in 2000, as assembled by the work of the Hillsborough Independent Panel 2010–12.

¶3.3 It comprises the master catalogue and the documents in digital form (these provide the foundation for the Panel's Report and are disclosed on the Panel's website) and the records discovered in their original format (hard copy and audio-visual). Provision has been made to ensure that all material disclosed to the Panel is preserved permanently. It is accessible, digitally or in original copy, to bereaved families, survivors and the public.

¶3.4 Given the unified digital access for the public via the web, the Panel considers there is no requirement to hold original documents and other material in a single place, provided they are catalogued and are available.

¶3.5 The main access is digital. The Permanent Archive of documents and other materials in hard copy is proposed as a Distributed Archive combining central government records transferred to The National Archives at Kew, and local records transferred to Sheffield or to Liverpool as appropriate.

The protocol accompanying the Panel's terms of reference says: 'The scope of the disclosure process is intended to cover all documentation held by central government, local government and other public agencies which relates directly to events surrounding the Hillsborough tragedy up to and including the Taylor report, the Lord Stuart-Smith review of Hillsborough papers in 1998-99 and the private prosecution in 2000. The relevant agencies include the police, ambulance service, fire service, coroner and Sheffield City Council.'

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¶3.6 The digital and hard-copy documents and materials form a lasting national memorial to those who died, survived or were affected by the tragedy. They provide the most complete record of events available, disclosing the decisions taken and actions progressed by those involved throughout an extended period before and since the disaster.

¶The Permanent Archive

¶3.7 The material disclosed to the Panel has been provided from an extensive range of sources, including central government departments, wider public authorities, non-governmental organisations, charities and individuals involved with the context, circumstances and aftermath of the disaster. Sources also include national and local media.

¶3.8 The Panel has catalogued and digitised over 25,000 documents that have directly informed the Report in order to add to public understanding of the context, circumstances and consequences of the disaster and why no satisfactory resolution of the issues raised by the families and survivors has been achieved.

¶Development and content

¶3.9 The development of the Permanent Archive, both digital and hard copy, has been achieved by identifying the organisations involved before, during and after the disaster, and obtaining information not revealed to the families or to the public from those organisations and by the previous inquiries and other processes.

¶3.10 On 17 April 1989 Lord Justice Taylor was appointed by the Home Secretary to conduct an Inquiry into what happened at Hillsborough and to make recommendations regarding crowd control and crowd safety at sports events. Following evidence gathering by the investigating police force (West Midlands Police), written submissions, commissioned reports and oral hearings, LJ Taylor published an Interim Report on 1 August 1989, less than four months after the disaster. This was followed by a more generic Final Report, with minimal focus on the events at Hillsborough, published on 18 January 1990.

¶3.11 The documents and other material relied on by LJ Taylor, particularly in writing the Interim Report, have been disclosed to the Panel. Using this range of evidence the Panel sought and accessed further material relating to the period 1981 to 1989, focusing particularly on the condition of the stadium and structural modifications following serious overcrowding and injury in 1981.

¶3.12 The Panel also accessed further documents concerning the investigation and Inquiry conducted by LJ Taylor and the range of legal and inquisitorial processes that followed: civil actions; inquests; criminal investigations; disciplinary inquiries; judicial reviews; and judicial scrutiny.

¶3.13 Over 80 organisations, and a number of individuals, have disclosed documents and materials to the Archive. These include: central government departments (including the Cabinet Office, the Attorney General's Office and the Crown Prosecution Service); the South Yorkshire Police; the West Midlands Police; the Coroners' Offices; the emergency services; the health authorities; and the local authorities in Liverpool and Sheffield. Bereaved families and survivors have also made documents available to the Panel (see the master catalogue and Appendix 2 of this Report).

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¶3.14 The Archive is the product of an active search process conducted by the Panel. This required negotiation with the organisations and individuals concerned, including central government departments whose records are classed as public records.2

¶Public access

¶3.15 Before public records are 30 years old, they should be destroyed if not suitable for permanent preservation or, alternatively, they should be transferred to The National Archives or a Place of Deposit (PoD),3 normally a local Record Office. At this time they become open to the public, unless retention/closure of complete or partial records is agreed by the Lord Chancellor's Advisory Council on National Records and Archives.

¶3.16 Organisations can transfer and disclose records before 30 years but they are under no obligation to do so. At the time of the Panel's appointment, documents relating to Hillsborough were within the 30-year period.

¶3.17 Coroners' records are court records and subject to the Coroners Rules 1984. They are defined as public records and undergo selection for permanent preservation at PoDs appointed under Section 4(1) of the Public Records Act 1958. Currently, they should be transferred by 30 years to a PoD and then become subject to the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA). Coroners' records are outside freedom of information (FOI) requests until they are deposited in a PoD at 30 years, when they come within FOIA.

¶3.18 In practice and by convention, PoDs always refer back to depositing organisations, particularly if the material sought under FOIA is less than 30 years old. In summary, therefore, coroners' records should be deposited by 30 years. If they are deposited prior to that time they may be closed because they are subject to the court records exemption under Section 32 of FOIA.4

¶Recommendation 1

¶The Panel considers that the implementation of the Coroners and Justice Act 20095 should bring about a more consistent approach to the archiving and availability of transferred records and encourages the newly appointed Chief Coroner of England and

¶Wales to issue guidance in consultation with the Keeper of Public Records.

¶3.19 Other records disclosed to the Panel, including the South Yorkshire Police records, are not subject to legislation in respect of archiving obligations; nor are privately owned records. At the outset of the Panel's work, the South Yorkshire Police stated that records held by the Force relevant to Hillsborough would be disclosed for public access. These hard-copy records are deposited in Sheffield Archives and are publicly accessible online.

The Public Records Acts 1958 and 1967. Subsequent legislation such as the Freedom of Information Act 2000 has superseded the access provisions of the Acts and a reduced 20-year period (instead of 30 years) for transferring records to the Public Record System is also being introduced from 2013. See www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ information-management/legislation/public-records-act.htm. 3. PoDs are repositories authorised by the Keeper of Public Records as suitable for the permanent archiving of records, usually created locally and of regional or local importance, considered to be of national significance such as records relating to Hillsborough. 4. The Freedom of Information Act 2000 has provision for access to 'historical' records, i.e. those older than 30 years when many of the exemptions fall away. It is at present under review. 5. The Coroners and Justice Act 2009, www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2009/25/contents. For the appointment of the

¶Chief Coroner of England and Wales, see www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-18156598, reported 22 May 2012.

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¶3.20 Most documents sought for disclosure by the Panel were produced within the 30-year period of transfer. In normal circumstances, organisations subject to the Public Records Acts would not be obliged to disclose or make them accessible except through the provisions of FOIA and other relevant Access to Information legislation.

¶3.21 At 30 years FOI legislation deems records to be historical and many of the exemptions to disclosure are lifted.

¶3.22 For historical research, wholesale disclosure is critical, enabling the full context of the history of a matter to be known. This applies to the Panel's proposed Distributed Permanent Archive, both digital and hard copy.

¶3.23 Unlike the regulatory framework under which central government and other designated public records bodies operate, there is no official archival legislation requiring the provision of archive services at local and regional level for records that have been created by an administrative body, or for other records in its custody. There are a number of Acts and Statutory Instruments that, to an extent, safeguard historical records, but the wording is often open to interpretation and archiving may be incomplete. This has been an issue for the Panel and, on occasion, has made the work of the Panel difficult.

¶Public authorities

¶3.24 Public authorities, including the police forces and Ambulance Service involved, have disclosed a significant amount of documents and material to the Panel. As public authorities, they have statutory obligations to keep and maintain records for operational (and perhaps historical) reasons and may make arrangements to preserve important records.

¶3.25 They can 'warehouse' records with a suitable commercial organisation while retaining ownership and accountability for responding to FOI requests or, at an appropriate time, donate the material formally to an archive (such as Sheffield Archives, an appointed PoD) for preservation. FOI responsibility then passes to the archive. The Sheffield Archive maintains high standards in storage and curatorial care, and has in its collection various coroners' records, and court, probate and council records.

¶3.26 In summary, varying obligations are established in legislation affecting the eventual disposition of differently sourced records to any Distributed Permanent Archive. In the case of private records, they may never be deposited. Regarding Hillsborough, they will be accessible via the Panel's website. Thus the website becomes a critical part of the Permanent Archive as it holds material digitally which might not be accessible in its original form elsewhere.

¶Records of police forces in England and Wales

¶3.27 It has been a concern to the Panel that, with the exception of the Metropolitan Police, police forces in England and Wales are not subject to the Public Records Acts. Neither are police force documents part of the record of local government. In many cases the documentary evidence they hold is poor.6

Chris A Williams and Clive Emsley, 'British Police forces' Archiving Policies in 2003'. In: Chris Williams (ed.) Giving the

¶Past a Future – Preserving the heritage of the UK's Criminal Justice System (London: Francis Boutle, 2003).

¶See also Archives at the Millennium p16, www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documents/information-management/archmill.pdf.

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¶3.28 Although there have been initiatives to improve their record keeping and archiving, a survey in 20037 found that only approximately one-third of police forces had archiving policies. Most indicated that contact with a local record office or archive was rare. Consequently, provision made by individual forces for publicly accessible archives has been, and remains, voluntary. This has led to wide variations in the preservation and availability of historic records in local record offices or national and local museums.

¶Recommendation 2

¶The Panel recommends that police force records are brought under legislative control and that police forces are added to Part II of the First Schedule to the Public Records Act

¶1958, thereby making them subject to the supervision of the Keeper of Public Records.

¶Main locations for the Distributed Permanent Archive

¶3.29 The Panel was asked to consider options for providing a Permanent Archive for the Hillsborough documents. It proposes a Distributed Archive approach for the hard-copy material with the digital form being archived at The National Archives.

¶3.30 The digital archive will provide the primary means of access to the Hillsborough Archive. Via the Panel's website, it will be the sole coherent source of all material disclosed to the Panel and should be considered as part of the Permanent Archive, not just as a website.

¶3.31 In the Panel's view there are three main possibilities for the Distributed Permanent Archive of original, hard-copy documents and material: The National Archives, Sheffield Archive and Liverpool Record Office. Each is involved in archiving Hillsborough material already. The Panel therefore proposes that they should become the main centres of the Distributed Permanent Archive.

¶3.32 Other public records are distributed throughout the UK according to the nature of the records and the suitability and locality of the repositories under the PoD arrangements. This well-established process has operated since the Public Records Act 1958 came into force and the Panel considers it should obtain in holding additional Hillsborough material.

¶Recommendation 3

¶The Panel recommends that central government documents relating to Hillsborough which were disclosed to the Panel be transferred to The National Archives at Kew in due course, with redactions agreed by the Panel retained.

¶3.33 Regarding non-central government public records, only the Keeper of Public Records has the power to transfer public records from The National Archives to an appointed PoD, and from one PoD to another should they be more appropriately held elsewhere (Public Records Act 1958, Section 4(3)).

¶3.34 A PoD cannot be compelled to accept transfers but it must agree to receive them if the records are outside its existing collecting remit and PoD schedule.

www.acpo.police.uk/ProfessionalPractice/InformationManagement.aspx.

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¶3.35 Removal of locally created public records (e.g. coroners' records) relating to Hillsborough from Sheffield to another location would be contrary to The National Archives' published disposition strategy and would give rise to several presentational issues locally. This would not serve to assist the making of a Permanent Archive and could disrupt the archiving process.

¶Amount of original material involved

¶3.36 Including central government material, the documents disclosed to the Panel amount to approximately 735 linear metres of archive boxes. Assuming that central government material is excluded, since it will be absorbed by The National Archives, approximately up to 700 linear metres of material will need to be accommodated by the PoDs.

¶3.37 Given the pressure on space at archives and their modest future acquisition rates, such a volume could be very difficult for one archive to absorb as a new deposit. Thus it would be economical to share the burden.

¶3.38 Irrespective of costs which might be incurred in moving original records from one location to another, there are complicating issues relating to the relocation of records. Without the consent of the owners or relevant statutory authority, records cannot be removed from the custody of the creators of records or the repository in which they have been deposited in accordance with legislation and archival practice.

¶Sheffield Archives

¶3.39 Sheffield Archives is the records repository and archive service for the city of Sheffield and the South Yorkshire area, operated by Sheffield City Council under the Local Government (Records) Act 1962, the Local Government Act 1974 and other relevant legislation. Sheffield Archives also has been appointed as a PoD under Section 4(1) of the Public Records Act 1958 to hold locally created public records, including those of the NHS and Her Majesty's Coroner.

¶3.40 It provides the full range of services expected from a local archive and local studies collection as well as a conservation studio and records management service for Sheffield City Council. A formal inspection by The National Archives in 2005 and subsequent monitoring of the service, together with the results of The National Archives' self- assessment exercise for local authority archive services, indicate that Sheffield Archives provides a high standard of service meeting the requirements of The National Archives' Standard for Record Repositories (2004). This is the recognised national benchmark for archive services.

¶3.41 Normally, costs associated with preservation and provision of access to the local records relating to the Hillsborough disaster would be borne by Sheffield Archives but they may require additional funding to absorb the deposits. This would unite the material disclosed to the Panel, as a large proportion of the records created by official and other bodies in connection with the Hillsborough disaster is held in Sheffield Archives.

¶Liverpool Record Office

¶3.42 Liverpool Record Office is the principal archive repository for the City of Liverpool and the Merseyside area, operated by Liverpool City Council. It fulfils functions similar to those of Sheffield Archives and has many important official and deposited private collections relating to the city and Merseyside sub-region. It is also a PoD under Section 4(1) of the Public Records Act 1958.

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¶3.43 Refurbishment of the Liverpool Record Office is expected to be completed in late 2012. Liverpool City Council and the Record Office would need to make additional financial and accommodation provision to absorb part of the Distributed Permanent Archive.

¶3.44 The Record Office can provide a digital service and professional support close to where many families, survivors and others affected by the disaster live. Liverpool Football Club and other organisations have indicated that they are prepared to deposit documents and records relating to Hillsborough at the Record Office.

¶Recommendation 4 The Panel proposes a Distributed Permanent Archive of the original material at Sheffield Archives and Liverpool Record Office and for central government records at The National Archives at Kew. Such a Distributed Archive is in keeping with the nature of the records and the services which the three archives can best provide and which they are willing to do.

¶Recommendation 5 Private owners of documents and other material made available to the Panel, especially where those records have been disclosed on the Hillsborough website, should be encouraged to deposit their records in the archives.

¶From active digital archive to Permanent Archive

¶3.45 The Distributed Archive of original, hard-copy documents and other material should be accessible through the catalogue and digitised documents on the website. These need to be permanently archived to complete the Distributed Permanent Archive. The digital archive will provide the main form of access for most people.

¶3.46 The Panel's website brings together all documents and other records (for example, some audio-visual) disclosed to the Panel in digital form with a master catalogue. It will be disclosed to the families first and then to the public.

¶3.47 The digital website will be permanently archived and will remain easier to access than the physical archive, which will be distributed across repositories and, in some cases, may even be retained by the owners. The digital archive will also have the benefit of eliminating issues of ownership of original records and their physical location.

¶3.48 A robust model for continued funding for the website must be agreed. Statistics indicate that 25 per cent of National Lottery-funded digitisation projects have failed and it would be unacceptable for this to occur with the Hillsborough Archive. It will provide the primary method of consulting the archive and a record of what the Panel achieved.

¶3.49 Online and hard-copy access will be supported by archivists and social service assistance in Liverpool for families beyond the launch of the website and the Panel's Report. Liverpool will have an additional archivist funded to assist with access until the end of 2012. Sheffield, The National Archives and any other repositories will incorporate the website into their normal services.

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¶3.50 The audio-visual material in high resolution for permanent archival purposes will be preserved at The National Archives.

¶3.51 For sustainability and funding, the website will remain active for the foreseeable future, hosted by the Home Office. There may also be a need to add material to the digital archive and to process, manage and technically facilitate requests for personal data to be removed from the digital archive.

¶Recommendation 6 An Editor-in-Chief should be appointed to be responsible for the policy and implementation of the digital archive post-disclosure and continuing technical support should be provided to manage existing and new material.

¶Recommendation 7 A protocol for allowing additional material to be incorporated into the digital archive and for taking down material is recommended.

¶Recommendation 8 The digital archive and the audio-visual material should remain available for the foreseeable future at Liverpool and Sheffield with advisory and support staff as necessary; it should be accessible according to the access protocol agreed by the Panel.

¶Recommendation 9 The digital archive, including audio-visual material, eventually should be permanently archived at The National Archives.