Regarding my request to release redacted sections from Robert Maxwell’s Home Office
‘The situation as it stands now is that we are awaiting the final sign off by the Secretary of State for the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport, (The National Archives parent department), regarding whether it is necessary for certain information within this record to be redacted under Sec.23 of the FOI Act. (This information relates to the identities of employees that worked for MI5, and some details of their work. MI5 were routinely involved in background checks relating to Naturalisation applicants.)Under Freedom of Information legislation, we are required to have this sign off before we can release the file to the public. However, this has been delayed by the fact there has been some disruption concerning the post for the Secretary of State for DCMS, and subsequently a backlog of FOI requests has built up with them, all awaiting final sign off.’
