Annual releases
What is the PRONI Annual Release?
Traditionally, each year selected Departmental public records have been brought forward for release to the general public as they approach 30 years of age.This annual release continues against a background of greater public access through the Freedom of Information Act (2000), balanced against the need to protect personal information. The FOI Act has created a new access to information regime and all records are now reviewed in accordance with the FOI Act and Data Protection Act (1998).
The annual release procedure involves the referral of each file to the responsible authority (usually the Government Department who originally created the file) for sensitivity review. Sensitivity review entails a page by page examination of each record to ensure that it contains nothing sensitive as defined by the FOI and Data Protection Acts.
In addition to files reaching 30 years of age, other records exceeding 30 years of age may also be released. These are records which may have missed their proper review date for a number of reasons – for example, they have only recently been transferred to the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI).
Traditionally, annual releases have been published as a single list of all files released in a given year.
More recently, PRONI publishes:
A full list of all 30 year old files brought forward for release in a given year, containing:
- Access decision
- PRONI reference number
- File covering dates
- Short description (usually no more than one line)
- Department file number
A highlights list of ‘opened’ 30 year old files which may be of particular historical significance, containing:
- PRONI reference number
- File covering dates
- Longer description (usually a paragraph)
- Department file number
An additional files list of ‘opened’ files exceeding 30 years old.
2009 Annual releases (end December, 2009)
What was released in previous years?
Files released in previous years are listed in the Annual Releases archive.
