Researchers have called for greater transparency from the Foreign Office over the files it holds on the Duke of York. Officials responding to freedom of information requests have given a variety of reasons why the files cannot be released.
Andrew Lownie, an author who is researching a biography of Prince Andrew, was told that the files could not be made public until 2065, and implied there was a general rule that papers relating to members of the royal family must remain closed until 105 years after their birth.
Last week, a spokesperson for the UK Information Commissioner’s Office said: “There’s nothing in the Freedom of Information Act about that”, adding that they were not aware of anything preventing the files’ release under any other legislation.
“The government’s covering up for Andrew,” said Lownie, who has described trying to get information on the prince from government departments as like “whack-a-mole” and has called for a register of royal interests.
The author, whose book on Andrew comes out next year, has been trying to get access to papers detailing who accompanied the prince on his trade trips, after accusations that he used his position and his publicly funded trips abroad for private business deals.
Earlier this month, an alleged Chinese spy was revealed to be an associate of the prince and had “an unusual degree of trust” with him. Buckingham Palace also confirmed that Andrew would not join the royal family for their Christmas celebrations at Sandringham last week.
Other royal files, including those on Andrew previously open for decades, have been reclosed by the National Archives after an internal review.
Dr Alison McClean, a researcher at the Centre for Academic Language and Development at Bristol University, is one of a number of academics who have been warning that files once open to the public for years are being reclosed. Her expertise is in court and crime records but she has also found papers relating to the royal family, including the prince’s Royal Navy training, have been reclosed.
“This is a rather dubious process, in that the National Archives relies on retrospective application of the exemptions to the FoI Act to justify these reclosures,” she said. She believes the National Archives had ignored parliament’s intention for the law to allow journalists and academic researchers to override exemptions. “It’s all internal at the National Archives. There’s no external scrutiny. I don’t think it would withstand a judicial review.”
Government papers are normally released after 20 years under the Public Records Act but there are exemptions for some royals, such as those covering discussions with the monarch, the heir, and second in line to the throne, as well as exemptions for national security prejudice to the conduct of public affairs, or personal information.
The National Archives releases documents every year containing letters or other information about the late Queen, her sister Princess Margaret, or other members of the royal family, within 105 years of their birth.
Lownie said government departments give contradictory responses to his requests for documents about Andrew, including saying that they do not exist, and then that there are so many that it will be too expensive to search through them. A government department can refuse an FoI request if getting the information will cost too much money or take too much time.
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In a response to one of his FoI requests, an official at the Department for Business and Trade wrote: “If selected as records of historical importance the files will be transferred to the National Archives. If not selected, they will be destroyed in line with the department’s policy.”
The department declined to go into detail but said it had complied with its legal obligations.
A spokesperson for the National Archives said: “When we become aware that open records may contain information that comes under one or more of the exemptions within the FoI Act, eg personal information, those records have their access status amended to ‘Access Under Review’ to allow for their review under the FoI Act.”
She added that the legal framework for access to information had changed over time. “This can mean that in a collection of over 15m records, there may be instances where information has been opened under an earlier access regime – for example the Open Government Initiative in the 1990s – but if it were to be considered now, since the introduction of legislation such as the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and the Data Protection Act 2018, it would not be released.”
The Foreign Office declined to comment.
