Introduction
On Friday 17 May 2013 the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) welcomed academics and research students to an open forum to discuss and discover more about FCO Records. The aim of the day was to inform the audience about FCO record keeping and the process for releasing files to the public, and to receive feedback and questions from the academic community about their experiences in accessing FCO records. The forum was organised by the Information Management Department (IMD) in the FCO which is home to the Archive Management Team, the Knowledge and Information Management Team, the Freedom of Information (FOI) and Data Protection Act (DPA) team and the FCO Historians. This publication reproduces the presentations given in the morning session and provides a summary of the discussion from the question Christine Ferguson, Departmental Records Officer, addressing the audience and answer session in the afternoon. The Programme was as follows: 11.00
Welcome: Christine Ferguson, Departmental Records Officer Presentations: FCO Records: Myth & Reality What we keep and why Opening historical records to the public FCO special collections Records in the future
12.30 Lunch 13:30 Audience Q&A with panel: Professor Patrick Salmon, FCO Chief Historian (Chair) Martin Tucker, Head of the Archive Management Team John Thompson, Senior Sensitivity Reviewer Rosie Dyas, Head of the Information Rights Team Jim Daly, Sensitivity and Publications Reviewer Carryl Allardice, Head of the Knowledge and Information Management Team 15:00 Close
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