NATIONAL
ARCHIVES

2020-21THE

Annual Report andAccounts of The
National Archives

HC 413

Annual Report and Accounts of The
National Archives 2020-21
Including the Annual Report of the Advisory Council on National Records and Archives 2020-21
Annual Reports presented to Parliament pursuant to section 1(3) of the Public Records Act 1958
Accounts presented to the House of Commons pursuant to section 6(4) of theGovernment Resources and Accounts Act 2000
Accounts presented to the House of Lords by Command of Her Majesty
Ordered by the House of Commons to be printed on 15 July 2021

HC 413

This is part of a series of departmental publications which, along with the Main Estimates 2021-22
and the document ‘Public Expenditure: Statistical Analyses 2020’, present the Government’s outturnfor 2020-21 and planned expenditure for 2021-22.

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The National Archives

Annual Report and Accounts 2020-21

Preface
About the Annual Report and Accounts of The National Archives:
This document combines performance and financial data with analysis to help readers better
understand our work. It sets out how we spend taxpayers’ money to fulfil our remit as theofficial archive and publisher for the UK Government, and for England and Wales. It covers ouractivities from April 2020 to March 2021 (inclusive) and is divided into three main sections.
The performance report and analysis (pages 5 to 34) includes a summary of progress and key
activities (the performance overview), followed by our achievements over the year against eachof the business priorities, and input and impact indicators (the performance analysis).
The accountability report (pages 35 to 74) includes an introductory statement from the Chair of
our Board, and the Directors’ report sets out our operating structure and transparency matters,such as inclusion and diversity, and whistleblowing. It also includes:■a statement of the Accounting Officer’s responsibilities■

a governance statement on how The National Archives manages risk■a remuneration and staff report setting out an open account of the pay and benefits
received by the executive directors and Non-executive Board members■

disclosures on pay and pensions policies, and details of staff numbers and costs■

a parliamentary accountability and audit report, allowing readers to understand thedepartment’s expenditure against the money provided to it by Parliament along with theStatement of Parliamentary Supply■

a copy of the audit certificate and report made to Parliament by The Comptroller and
Auditor General, setting out their opinion on the financial statements.

The financial statements (pages 75 to 100) outline our income and expenditure for the financial
year, the financial position of the department as of 31 March 2021, and additional information
designed to enable readers to understand these results.
Annex A (pages 101 to 109) provides a detailed sustainability report, giving an overview of ouractivities during the financial year, our progress against Greening Government Commitments
targets, and our plans for 2021-22.
Annex B (pages 110 to 123) contains the Advisory Council on National Records and Archives:
18th Annual Report 2020-21, which describes its role, work actioned in year, and details of theForum on Historical Manuscripts and Academic Research.
Annex C (pages 124 to 125) contains the Annual Report of the Independent Complaints
Reviewer, which sets out information on the service and standards, an overview of both thelearning from complaints and customer feedback, and of complaint activity and examples.

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Annual Report and Accounts 2020-21

Contents1.

Performance report7

1.1

Overview

8

Introduction

8

Who we are11

Our audiences

13

Performance analysis

27

Financial management commentary27

Performance against our business priorities

29

Performance against our input and impact indicators

32

Environment and sustainability

35

2.

Accountability report

37

2.1

Corporate governance report

38

Statement from the Chair of The National Archives’ Board

38

Directors’ report

39

Governance statement

41

Statement of Accounting Officer’s responsibilities

53

2.2

Remuneration and staff report

54

2.3

Parliamentary accountability and audit report67

Statement of Outturn against Parliamentary Supply (SoPS)

67

The Certificate and Report of The Comptroller and Auditor General to
The House Of Commons

73

Financial statements

77

Notes to the Departmental Resource Accounts

82

Annex A

Sustainability accounting and reporting

103

Annex B

Advisory Council on National Records and Archives:

1.2

3.

Annex C

6

18th Annual Report 2020-21

112

Annual Report of the Independent Complaints Reviewer 2020-21

126--------------------

Performance
Report1

The National Archives

1.1

Annual Report and Accounts 2020-21

Overview

Introduction from Chief Executive and Keeper
To the Right Honourable Oliver Dowden CBEMP, Secretary of State for Digital, Culture,
Media and SportAs I write this introduction, I feel a
combination of pride in all we have beenable to achieve this year and thankfulness
that we have been in a position to do so. Ina year like no other, with every aspect of ourwork impacted by the Coronavirus (COVID-19)
crisis, we have continued our historic mission:
to collect and preserve the record, to use ourexpertise and knowledge to connect people
with their history through our unrivalled
collections, and to lead, partner and support
archives at home and worldwide.
In 2020-21, with our doors closed to the
public for long periods during the year, withthe majority of our staff working from homethroughout and with limited scope to deliver
our traditional services on our usual scale, wehave innovated, we have experimented and wehave delivered. As we look forward to the next
12 months and the return of the freedoms few
of us will take for granted ever again, we do sowith renewed confidence in our capabilities,
our reach and our potential.

As we look forward
to the next 12 months
and the return of thefreedoms few of us willtake for granted everagain, we do so withrenewed confidence inour capabilities, ourreach and our potential.
8

Throughout, we remained wholly committed
to our long-term vision set out in ‘Archives forEveryone’: to be the inclusive, entrepreneurial
and disruptive 21st century national archive,
connecting with the biggest and most diverse
audience possible, in the most innovative ways
we can. In September 2020, we publishedfive refreshed business priorities setting out
how we would continue to deliver ‘Archives
for Everyone’ against the backdrop of
COVID-19, while also playing our part in the UK
Government’s response to the pandemic:
1. Capturing the record and aiding legal
certainty
2. Taking the collection to new audiences
3. Realising the value of archives throughresearch, innovation and commercial
exploitation
4. Leading the archives sector to a secure andsustainable future
5. Changing the way we work
This year’s report relates a set of achievementsthat would be notable in any ‘normal’ year. I
will not rehearse them all in this introduction,
but I will offer the following highlights:
Capturing the record and aiding legal
certainty – our work throughout the year
to archive the Government response to the
COVID-19 pandemic, capturing 13 million
resources across GOV.UK, NHS.UK and otherkey government communication channels;
the accessioning into our collection of close to100,000 government records and our ongoingsupport for government records management
against a background of restricted physical--------------------

The National Archives

access to collections; managing the transferof over 17,000 born digital records fromgovernment departments into the archive; ourexpert support and access to our collections
for public inquiries and the key role playedby our legislation.gov.uk team in registeringand publishing Coronavirus legislation andlegislation relating to the UK’s Transition
Period with the EU and the future relationship.
Taking the collection to new audiences– our rapid and successful pivot to online
delivery at the start of the first lockdown –maintaining a vibrant programme of talks andevents; the use of our education services as a
key component in the national home-schooling
effort; the remarkable popularity of our free
digital downloads, which helped mitigate therestrictions on our on site services and loans
to exhibitions maintaining the reach of ourcollections with a global audience.
Realising the value of archives throughresearch, innovation and commercial
exploitation – our key role in national andinternational research projects, including theArts and Humanities Research Council’s (AHRC)
Strategic Priorities Fund ‘Towards a National
Collection’; our pioneering work developing
DiAGRAM, the Digital Archives Graphical Risk
Assessment Model; our expert participation
in international discussions on collections
and conservation and our continued close
collaboration with colleagues at the National
Archives of the United Arab Emirates on thesecond phase of the Arabian Gulf Digital Archive.
Leading the archives sector to a secure andsustainable future – our securing £500,000
of additional funding from HM Treasury
to deliver the COVID-19 Archives Fund tohelp safeguard the vulnerable collectionsof 25 organisations, across all four nations;our partnership with the Business Archives
Council-led Crisis Management Team and theAnnual Report and Accounts 2020-21

We remained wholly
committed to our longterm vision set out in‘Archives for Everyone’:to be the inclusive,
entrepreneurial anddisruptive 21st century
national archive,
connecting with thebiggest and most diverse
audience possible, inthe most innovative ways
we can.

Records at Risk Steering Group to mitigate therisks faced by archive collections; our wide
range of sector projects and initiatives fromarchival traineeships and apprenticeships
to projects to build digital capacity in thearchives; and, through my Presidency of theForum of National Archivists (FAN), the work as
part of this global network to advocate for thepreservation of the world’s archival heritage.
Changing the way we work – the continuing
success of the majority of staff moving toworking from home, providing the opportunity
to explore alternative and flexible ways ofworking in the future; the launch of ‘Becoming
the Inclusive Archive’, a fresh approach toinclusion and a step towards achieving ourgoals set out in ‘Archives for Everyone’, with afocus on Workforce – who we are, Audience– who we serve, Practice – how we work,
Position – our global role.
Thanks are due to The Friends of The
National Archives, The National Archives
Trust and our volunteers, all of whom havecontinued to support us in the delivery of
our projects and priorities throughout thismost extraordinary of years.
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The National Archives

In my introductions tothese reports I havecustomarily paid tributeto the hard work anddedication of The National
Archives’ staff. I gladly
do so here again, but inthe context of the year
just gone it is difficult
for me to do sufficientjustice to the qualityof their work and thecommitment they haveshown.

Annual Report and Accounts 2020-21

In my introductions to these reports I havecustomarily paid tribute to the hard work anddedication of The National Archives’ staff. I
gladly do so here again, but in the context ofthe year just gone it is difficult for me to do
sufficient justice to the quality of their workand the commitment they have shown. Allof them have faced challenges and like thecountry as a whole many have experienced
much worse. Throughout they have supported
one another and the work of this institution in
exemplary fashion. They are a credit both to
the Civil Service and the near two centurieslong tradition of this institution and it is anhonour to lead them as Chief Executive andKeeper.

Jeff James,
Chief Executive and Keeper,
12 July 2021-

10

The National Archives

Annual Report and Accounts 2020-21

Who we are
The National Archives is a non-ministerial
department and the official archive andpublisher for the UK Government, andfor England and Wales. We work to bring
together and secure the future of the publicrecord, both digital and physical, for future
generations. Our collection is accessible toanyone all over the world.
We are many things to many audiences:■■

For government, we are the custodian of
the public record and trusted experts inmanaging, preserving, using and re-using
information.
For the public, we provide access to morethan 1,000 years of the nation’s histories
and connect people and communities withthe millions of stories contained in ourcollection.

■

For the archives sector, we provide
leadership and support, helping archives
to build the skills and capacity needed tosustain the nation’s archival heritage.

■

For the academic community and others
engaged in scholarly research, we offer
opportunities for working together acrossa broad range of disciplines – to provide
solutions to our key challenges, and toopen up greater access to our collection.

We are an essential resource for our
democracy, a public good and an asset for
future generations. Our historic mission
endures: to collect and preserve the record,

Our conviction is thatarchives are for everyone,
and that archives change
lives for the better.

to use our expertise and knowledge toconnect people with their history through our
unrivalled collections, and to lead, partner andsupport archives at home and worldwide.
Our conviction is that archives are foreveryone, and that archives change lives forthe better. As the living, growing home of ournational stories, we aim to connect with thebiggest and most diverse audience possible, inthe most innovative ways we can.
In 2019, we launched our strategic vision,‘Archives for Everyone’, which sets out how we
intend to become the 21st century nationalarchive: being the inclusive, entrepreneurial
and disruptive archive.
The inclusive archive builds trust and tears
down barriers to access, participation andunderstanding. It harnesses talent fromdiverse backgrounds. It is bold, active andoutward-looking – encountered by people
and communities in unexpected places and atvital moments.
The entrepreneurial archive creates andrealises value at home and across the globe.
Operating flexibly and fearlessly, it is adept at
finding and exploiting commercial, researchand philanthropic funding opportunities –opening out and promoting its collection.
The disruptive archive changes everything.
Constantly adapting, it rethinks and reshapes
its practice to meet its contemporary and futurechallenges. Developing new skills and exploiting
emerging technology, the disruptive archive
reaffirms and transforms its historic mission forthe digital age, from creation to presentation.
The Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic hasbrought about many changes to how wework and has fundamentally challenged us
to rethink how we deliver the priorities we11---------------------

The National Archives

set ourselves in ‘Archives for Everyone’. In
September 2020, we set out our two-year
plan, focusing on five strategic intents. By
focusing on these five priorities in all we do,
we will continue to transform ourselves inline with our strategy at the same time as
supporting the UK Government’s response to
the COVID-19 crisis.
The five intents are:
1. Capture the record and aid legal certainty
2. Take the collection to new audiences
3. Realise the value of archives throughresearch, innovation and commercial
exploitation

12

Annual Report and Accounts 2020-21

4. Lead the archives sector to a secure andsustainable future
5. Change the way we work
Our fresh understanding of our capabilities
provides us with the opportunity to innovateand make radical changes to the way we work,and the services we provide, to meet head-on
the changed expectations of our audiences.
We have already started to reimagine both
our ability to deliver on our statutory andnon-statutory duties, and our ability to makeprogress towards the long-term vision set
out in ‘Archives for Everyone’, to be the 21st
century national archive.

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The National Archives

Annual Report and Accounts 2020-21

Our audiences
For government, we provide expert advice
and scrutiny, ensuring that the record
survives and thrives■ Throughout the Coronavirus (COVID-19)
pandemic, we have adapted to discharge
our legislative and regulatory obligations,
supporting government departments bylaunching and maintaining a COVID-19
Information Hub and delivering advice andguidance about managing the disruption to
public records work.
■

We have continued to offer access tooriginal records to government colleagues
where requests were received to support
the Government’s response to the
COVID-19 crisis. We have also provided
expert support and access to our collection
for Public Inquiries including the Infected
Blood Inquiry, the Independent Inquiry into
Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) and Grenfell.

■

The pandemic has created significant
challenges for public record bodies interms of compliance with the 20-year
rule owing to lack of physical access tocollections. We have supported thesebodies to help them meet legal compliance,
leading engagement activity and supportingon adjustment of current and future plans.

■

The Freedom of Information (FOI) Centre
resolved 2,236 cases in 2020-21. This wasachieved despite restricted access to thephysical records. We continue to lookat new ways of working that allow us toprogress FOI requests, collaborate with our
stakeholders and streamline our approach.

■

Since the pandemic became known,
we have worked with and supported
departments on the capture of their1

records relating to the Government’s
response to COVID-19.
■

Over the year, we undertook an extensive
programme to archive the Government’s
response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Using our web archiving capabilities, wegathered a comprehensive, in depth andhighest quality record of the Government’s
response to COVID-19 on the web, regularly
archiving the GOV.UK and NHS.UK websites
and other key communication channels,
including official public social media
channels. We concentrated on quality andcompleteness of the public record. This
involved using a variety of different web
archiving techniques. We captured over
13 million unique resources from over 200
million individual point-in-time captures
relating to the pandemic (web pages andother web published content including
documents, spreadsheets, videos and raw
data files). A large part of the collection is
unique (circa 45 per cent), when comparedto two other leading web archives.1 This
record is available to support a future
public inquiry as well as future generationsof civil contingency planners and historicalresearchers.

■‘The Gazette’ fulfilled its historic role,
as a trusted source of information
during a pandemic, aiding legal andeconomic certainty. This included
providing a permanent record of theuse of emergency powers under theCoronavirus Act 2020 on a UK-widebasis and supplying important data tobusinesses, banks and credit reference
agencies about corporate insolvency.
Overall, 294,548 notices were placed in

The Internet Archive (www.archive.org) and the UK Web Archive (www.webarchive.org.uk)
13---------------------

The National Archives‘The Gazette’, including 73,218 about
corporate insolvency. Fifteen new typesof notice were created to record theuse of powers under the Coronavirus
Act 2020, with 221 Coronavirus notices
published during the year. These covered
restrictions on infected persons, closureof schools, and measures to support theeconomy.
Aiding legal certainty during the pandemic■ In order for legislation to be publicly
available, it must first be registered at
The National Archives and then publishedon the legislation.gov.uk website.
We prioritised the rapid publicationof Coronavirus regulations. This was
significant, as the Joint Committee on
Statutory Instruments set out in a special
report, ‘Transparency and Accountability
in Subordinate Legislation’, drawing
attention to section 3(2) of the Statutory
Instruments Act 1946 which “illustrates
the importance attached by Parliament
to prompt publication of law once made,and the inherent unfairness of expecting
citizens to comply with law that has notbeen published”.
■

Legislation.gov.uk played an important role
to aid legal certainty during the pandemic,
supporting the legislative response of thefour nations. From 1 April 2020, the UK
Government and devolved administrations
enacted 815 new pieces of Coronavirus
legislation. Much of this legislation was in
the form of Statutory Instruments madeusing emergency procedures, often withimmediate effect, for example to swiftly
implement lockdown restrictions or impose

14

Annual Report and Accounts 2020-21

international travel rules.
■

During the pandemic, we extended the
Statutory Instruments (SI) registration andpublishing service to provide cover 24hours a day and seven days per week. Thisextended service was called upon for 72
SIs, including 16 regulations which were
made, registered and published during theweekend. Emergency Coronavirus SIs wereregistered and published, on average 19
minutes after initial receipt. We set up a
specialist team to ensure that Coronavirus
amendments were identified and applied
as quickly as possible, usually within 24
hours for national restrictions.

■

There was significant public demand forCoronavirus regulations, significantly
increasing the level of traffic to legislation.
gov.uk. Overall website traffic was up by
30 per cent compared to 2019-20, with 24
million page views per month on average.
The publication of new Health Protection
Coronavirus Restriction regulations
resulted in very large spikes in demand.
The largest spike was 757,963 page viewsby 325,170 users to The Health Protection(Coronavirus, Restrictions) (England)(No. 4) Regulations 2020 in the week 2-9
November 2020. Our research showedthat users ranged from people working in
law enforcement through to businesses
and members of the general public. To
meet the needs of our users, we createdwww.legislation.gov.uk/coronavirus,
bringing together the key pieces ofCoronavirus legislation for each of thefour nations.

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The National Archives

Annual Report and Accounts 2020-21

The Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (All Tiers) (England) Regulations 2020
UK Statutory Instruments • 2020 No. 1374  SCHEDULE 3A....
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Figure 1, a legislation.gov.uk timeline of versions of the Coronavirus restrictions for England.
Aiding legal certainty from Transition
Period to Future Relationship with theEuropean Union (EU)■ As the UK’s Transition Period with the EU
ended and the future relationship began,legislation.gov.uk played an important role
to aid legal certainty. December 2020 was
the busiest month for new legislation in
five years, with 435 Statutory Instruments
registered and published during themonth, and the European Union (Future
Relationship) Act 2020 given royal assent
on 31 December 2020.
■

The Queen’s Printer fulfilled his duty under
the European Union (Withdrawal) Act
2018 Schedule 5, to publish the texts ofdirect retained EU legislation for the UK.
We completed an archive of 30.8 million
resources of European law, as it stoodon Implementation Period Completion
Day, from the relevant parts of the EURLex website, using our web archiving
capabilities. We also ensured there wasa high-quality capture of GOV.UK andother channels, through to the end of
the transition, tailoring our techniques tocapture key resources such as the ‘Brexit
checker’ service at https://webarchive.

nationalarchives.gov.uk/*/https://www.gov.
uk/transition.
■

Over the course of the year, we publishedthe remaining 559 EU Exit Statutory
Instruments, taking the total number of
amendments to UK domestic and direct
retained EU legislation to 147,517. Overall,
we recorded 87,453 amendments during
the year, with the editorial team applying
69,615 amendments, bringing an additional
3,458 pieces of legislation up to date.

■

Separately, working with our partners – theHouses of Parliament, Scottish Parliament,
and the drafting offices for UK and Scottish
legislation – we continued to develop
Lawmaker, a new browser-based legislation
drafting tool. This was used to draft, amend
and publish the Botulinum Toxin andCosmetic Fillers (Children) Act 2021.

Capturing the record
Throughout the year, we accessioned
more than 91,000 government records
transferred from over 20 public records
bodies, including:■◦

Files from the Cabinet Office and thePrime Minister’s Office covering events
15---------------------

The National Archives

Annual Report and Accounts 2020-21

in 1997 and 1998. We were able torelease more of these records digitallythan ever before

■

■

◦

Records of the Expert Advisory Groupon Acquired Immune Deficiency
Syndrome (AIDS)◦

Department of Health files about thecontrol of infection in hospitals◦

Papers of Sir Douglas Wass as
Permanent Secretary at HM Treasury◦

More than 50,000 files, maps andphotographs of UK coastal areas
created by Naval Intelligence Division
and Defence Intelligence Staff in the
post-war period to assess potential
invasion points.

We began a multi-year project with the
Ministry of Defence to transfer theircollection of 9.7 million Armed Forces
personnel files. These records are ofnational significance and are internationallyunique. The first deliveries arrived at Kew
in February 2021 and are expected tocontinue until 2027. By incorporating theserecords into the national collection, weare acknowledging the service, sacrifice,honour and pride of our service personnel
and reflecting the values that sit at theheart of our nation’s stories. However,a transfer of this magnitude brings with
it not only opportunity but also risk andchallenge, including the cost and logistics
of safeguarding these records and, in time,making them available to the public.
We have continued to support government
departments in the effective managementof their digital information; including
crucially, the record of the COVID-19
response by collaborating virtually with
the Government Knowledge & Information
16

Management Profession (GKIM), ourcounterparts in other national archives,
the Information and Records Management
Society and Cloud platform providers,such as Microsoft and Google. We arealso supporting ongoing training throughour bite size training sessions offered via
webinars.
■

On behalf of the Secretary of State, we led
a refresh of the Code of Practice issued
under s.46 of the Freedom of Information
Act 2000 (FOIA) which is planned for
publication later in 2021.

■

We drafted the first iteration of a newmodular Information Management Maturity
Model for Government. Our aim is to allow
Public Record Bodies to self-assess theirinformation management maturity easily
and remotely. We will engage with publicrecord bodies throughout 2021-22 throughuser research workshops to produce aworking prototype on our website.

■

Last year, we reported that a number ofnuclear information records had been
temporarily withdrawn from generalaccess while the Nuclear Decommissioning
Authority (NDA), the Ministry of Defence(MoD) and the Atomic Weapons
Establishment (AWE) completed a security
review. Although progress has beeninterrupted by COVID-19, around 20,000
records have been returned to generalaccess. We have collaborated with theseauthorities to create FOI processes to ensure
requests are dealt with during this review.

For the public, we work to inspire new
ways for people to use and experience ourdiverse collection■ In January 2021, The National Archives
launched ‘Becoming the Inclusive Archive’,a fresh approach to inclusion and a step--------------------

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Annual Report and Accounts 2020-21

groups. We have increased our regularpublic communications and adapted ourrigorous user feedback programme to the
new circumstances, to help us pick up andrespond to public concerns and suggestions.

towards achieving our goals set out in‘Archives for Everyone’ where we said we
would:◦

Remove barriers to access, participation
and understanding◦

Harness talent from diverse
backgrounds◦

Be bold, active and outward-looking.

On site services
Following the first national lockdown
in March 2020, we had to suspend ouron site public services, pausing physicalaccess to our collections. We reopened
to pre-booked public visitors in July
2020, gradually expanding our offer,including the number of bookable seats,
the number of documents that could
be ordered, and the amenities that wewere able to provide them with during
a visit. At all times, we ensured that ouroperations were in line with Government
guidance on social distancing, keeping
both our staff and visitors safe. Working
with this guidance and in consultation
with peer organisations, we developed aset of procedures to ensure documents
were safely handled by staff and visitors,
including quarantining periods. With thechange to national restrictions in December
2020, we once again had to suspend on site
public services.

■

We retendered our own off site storage
contract with Deepstore and createdstorage capacity for 8km of new accessions.

■

Our New Year annual file release in
December 2020 gained significant media
coverage, featuring files from the Prime
Minister’s Office and Cabinet Office from1997, predominantly covering the final
months of Sir John Major’s Government.
Given the national restrictions in place atthe time, many challenges were overcome
to provide online and some on site access,to make the file release a success, gaining
significant media coverage.

■■

We have communicated regularly with ourstaff, users and stakeholders throughout
the various periods of restrictions andeasing, which have characterised the lastyear. We have ensured that all changes toservices and disruption were notified tousers in a timely manner. Nevertheless, therestrictions have led to an understandable
level of frustration amongst some user

Maintaining remote services■ Our website, www.nationalarchives.gov.
uk, was very widely used, with a 25 per centincrease in traffic compared to the previous
year. When our reading room service wassuspended at Kew, to continue to ensurethat our records were available to as wide
an audience as possible, we provided
access to digitised copies of our records
free of charge. This commenced in April
2020. This initiative resulted in a significant
increase in the number of users of ourdigital downloads service, from 51,614 in
2019-20 to 139,037 in 2020-21, a 169 percent increase. The number of documents
downloaded increased from 166,491 in
2019-20, to 2,049,068 in 2020-21, a 1,131
per cent increase.
■

Where possible, we continued to provide alimited Record Copying Service, prioritising
Naturalisation Certificates.

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The National Archives■■

We maintained key communications andcontinued to give advice and guidance to ourusers and others via our live chat service,emails and letters. A phone line was enabled
for users without access to the internet.

Annual Report and Accounts 2020-21

Gold and Tudor plagues. The programmealso featured talks delivered by a range of
popular historians, including Kate Williams,
Annie Gray and Greg Jenner.
■

Our Victorian Christmas events werevery popular attracting over 3,000 virtual
attendees across three talks. We also
recorded three films highlighting aspectsof our collections linked to Christmas,
including ‘A Christmas Carol Goes to Court:
Charles Dickens in Chancery.‘ The threefilms have amassed over 5,000 views on
our YouTube channel.

■

We marked Black History Month,collaborating with the Black Cultural
Archives to deliver an online talk about
researching Black British history at both
institutions. We also created an online
display introducing some of our key
records relating to the history of black
people in Britain. The video has had 1,200
views on our YouTube channel.

■‘With Love: Letters of love, loss and longing’(our on site exhibition cut short owing to thepandemic) was relaunched online in January
2021 attracting 5,375 visits by March 2021.
Alongside the online exhibition we uploaded
three short films to YouTube; an expert tourof the gallery, a biopic of Wallis Simpson,and a diverse history film – Hidden Love –exploring LGBTQ histories in our collection.
These films combined attracted a further
5,061 views.

■

Combination Dance worked with us tocreate a socially-distanced dance film,‘With Love, Combination Dance’, which was
inspired by the exhibition and featured
interpretations of historical charactersand quotes from the exhibition. This was a
fun and engaging way to reach out to ouraudiences and was positively received.

Our records advice service moved entirely
online, allowing the public to continue toengage with our specialists for both quick
and more in-depth enquiries:◦

Since April 2020, over 18,000 enquiries
by live chat were answered remotely bystaff.

◦

29,969 email enquiries and 576 letterswere answered by staff.

◦

Our 355 research guides were viewed
over 8 million times between March
2020, and the start of April 2021.

Online Public Engagement
From March 2020, our public engagement
programme switched to online with What’s
Online, webinars, films, blogs and podcasts.
We increased the range and frequency of
our online communications. In particular,
we sent more frequent e-communications
and promoted our What’s Online events
series. Our subscriber base grew to 298,967
by the end of March 2021 (an increase of 23
per cent year on year).

■

■

■

Over the year, our online audience grew,
and our reach broadened internationally.
Establishing our digital events programme,‘What’s Online’, we saw a rapid growth inattendees, achieving a total of 17,798 by
the end of March 2021 (in comparison to a
total of 5,353 last year).
Events covered a wide range of topics withtalks from our internal specialists, including
the 1918-1919 influenza pandemic,
Margaret Thatcher, the Field of the Cloth of18--------------------

The National Archives■

Our Annual Digital Lecture with Carly Kind,
Director of the Ada Lovelace Instituteand human rights lawyer, on ‘The Deathof Anonymity in the Age of Identity’ wassuccessfully held online and attended byover 175 people.

■

This year, we released two series of our
podcast ‘On the Record’ and three bonus
episodes. The podcast has been listened
to over 23,000 times, in over 70 countries
representing a huge growth this year. In
July 2020, ‘On the Record’ won the silver
award in the podcast category at the 2020
American Alliance of Museums MUSE
Awards.

Outreach Activities■ ‘Once British, Always British’ was acollaboration with Tamasha Theatre
and explored the migration of Yemeni
and Indian sailors to British port cities
during the 1920s. Each story was
inspired by material researched during
a writing residency at The National
Archives. 322 people attended two online
listening events, achieving an 88 percent satisfaction score and attracting ayounger demographic than average forour online events.
■■‘Five Photos’ was an online resource,
written for care home residents or
people shielding. It uses images fromour collection to inspire discussion,
reminiscence and mindfulness as part of
the annual Arts in Care Homes national
initiative. Since it went online it has had
2,241 page views.
‘Archival Research and Therapeutic
Practice’ was the culmination of a oneyear collaboration with Stillpoint Spaces
International and the Black, African andAsian Therapy Network that drew over 160

Annual Report and Accounts 2020-21

people to a series of workshops using The
National Archives’ records to interrogate
fact and feeling when addressing topics
of racism, colonialism and empire. The
collaboration will culminate in an event to
be attended by over 100 people hosted by
the British Museum to share learning fromthis innovative approach.
Schools and Young People’s programmes■ Our education and young people’s
programme successfully moved entirely
online. In the year, we taught over 10,000
participants in online sessions, including
PGCE trainees, compared to 2,581 online
participants in 2019-20.
■

In January 2021, we changed our format todelivering sessions to students who were
all home-learning owing to the lockdown. In
the spring term alone, including lockdown
delivery and a subsequent return to school
delivery, we delivered online sessions toover 3,800 participants, including prerecorded assembly formats, PGCE groups,
SEND students and live family sessions.

■

Our Young People’s film project, premiered
in February, produced 15 short individual
films, inspired by our collection based on
the theme ‘From Outbreak to Archive’.
These were showcased on our education
webpages.

■

The completion of the Embedded Learning
Spaces in February 2021 expands our onsite education offer at Kew, ready for when
we can welcome school groups back.

■We also welcomed a new partner, theSwedish School in London, to locate their
Sixth Form on site from November 2020. This
new agreement is a great example of where
we have been able to align all three elementsof our strategy (entrepreneurial, inclusive,
19---------------------

The National Archives

Annual Report and Accounts 2020-21

and disruptive) to increase public value.

lesson for GCSE and A-level students.

Digital Activities■ Over the year, we have seen an increased
demand for our digital resources. Page
views increased nearly 16 per cent year on
year with a 30 per cent increase during the
March-July 2020 lockdown with the launchof our new video-based resources of Time
Travel TV and History Hook lesson starters
and unboxing videos.

■◦

Our Great Plague education resource
saw an 85 per cent increase in views
with the take-off happening from March
2020 as the country entered lockdown.

◦

Resources about Empire and Indian
independence also saw a significant
increase in use by up to 54 per cent.

◦Resources around Slavery andResistance saw increases up by 88 per
cent, with a huge spike during the Black
Lives Matter events in April 2020.

◦

Our Black, Asian and Minority Histories
finding aid was launched in September
2020 to support teaching of Black andMinority Ethnic history by highlighting
the wealth of resources alreadyavailable across the whole of our
website. This has received over 2,500
views to date.

◦

A similar finding aid for Women’s
Histories was launched in March 2021.

◦

20

Samuel Pepys: What does his will
reveal? – online lesson for primaryschools.
Criminal Petitions: What do they reveal
about the justice system? – online

Workhouse Voices – document collection
based on pauper correspondence in ourrecord series MH12.

◦

Our schools writing competition
inspired by Workhouse Voices
generated 317 responses, which werethen shortlisted, and the winners
were selected by the children’s author,
Sharon Gosling.

Other Activities■ We have continued to work closely withcolleagues at the National Archives of theUnited Arab Emirates, planning for thedelivery of the second phase of the Arabian
Gulf Digital Archive (AGDA). We have now
completed commercial negotiations forthis phase, which will see a further 500,000
records digitised during 2021-2022 andsubsequently published on the AGDA
website.
■Working in collaboration with The Officeof National Statistics and our commercial
partner Findmypast, we remain on course
to publish the 1921 Census online in early2022. Earlier in 2020, lockdown restrictions
led to a three-month shutdown of the
project, and while operations were backup and running as soon as permitted,
the subsequent need to work at a muchreduced staffing capacity has removed
any remaining contingency from project
timelines. The safety and wellbeing of
the project team and the security of theinformation recorded by the census havebeen of the utmost importance throughout.

■

Our on site shop was closed for most of
the year, but we were able to launch a new
online shop in September 2020 that has
proved very popular and processed 5,623

We produced a number of new education
resources:◦◦--------------------

The National Archives

orders during the year. Total sales for theyear were £185,903 (£178,392 online sales)
compared to £268,142 last year (£93,029
online sales).
■We moved our volunteer projects online
where possible, allowing increased
engagement from home. We celebrated
National Volunteers Week (1-7 June) with
online events, talks and galleries.

■

The Annual Report of the Independent
Complaints Reviewer, in contained in
Annex C, on pages 124 to 125.

■

We continued to reduce the impact of
our operations on the environment. Read
more in the environment and sustainability
section of this report (page 33), and in
Annex A – Sustainability accounting andreporting (pages 101 to 109).

Charitable partnerships
The Friends of The National Archives
continued to support us in a variety
of ways, from volunteering, eventsand through funding innovative public
programmes. We would like to thank the
Friends for helping us to achieve our goals.

Annual Report and Accounts 2020-21■

In response to COVID-19 and the necessary
closures and changes to service provision,
we provided up-to-date guidance,
resources and support. We also carried out
research into the different impacts of thepandemic on archive services to inform
our own response and advocate for theneeds of the sector, including ongoingissues around finances and staffing/
redeployment.

■

The National Archives received £500,000
additional funding from HM Treasury,
and we launched and delivered a support
fund for the archives sector to preventthe loss of documentary cultural heritage
arising from the increased risk of failure,dissolution or reduced capacity faced bybusinesses, charities, local authorities
and arts organisations as a result of
the pandemic. The fund received 85
applications from across the United
Kingdom, of which 25 were successful andprovided further evidence of the current
risks faced by the archives sector.

■‘Bridging the Digital Gap’ is our training
programme funded by the National
Lottery Heritage Fund to create 24 paid
technical trainees in archives around theUK. Bringing new and relevant skills into
the sector, the programme is in its thirdand final year. In 2020, in response to thepandemic, we moved to delivering thetraineeships online. The final cohort began
in January 2021.

■

The Institute for Apprenticeships andTechnical Education approved the newLevel 7 Apprenticeship for Archivists
and Records Managers, which will belaunched later in 2021. It has been
designed to improve inclusion andprovide an alternative route of entry into
the profession.

■■

In February 2020, The National Archives Trust(registered charity no. 1187839) was launched.
The Trust aims to support world-leading
education and engagement programmes
inspired by the collections held at Kew and by
many other archives throughout the country.
The Trust is an independent body and wehave been working closely with them ondeveloping a national programme of public
engagement and the creation of a Clore
Learning Centre at Kew.

For the archives sector, we are an effective
leader and collaborator, and support
archives of all kinds to sustain and develop
their services

21---------------------

The National Archives■■

Annual Report and Accounts 2020-21

Our Inclusion and Change work developed
rapidly this year, with a number of
initiatives, including:◦

Inclusive reopening training in responseto the COVID-19 pandemic◦

Support materials on how to assess
risk when communicating potentiallyupsetting histories◦

A matrix for inclusion to assist archive
services in identifying current barriers
to access◦Wellbeing and Mental Health guides
and training◦

A campaign promoting the ‘Manage Your
Collections’ tool to diverse archives◦

An inclusion review of the ‘Archives
Revealed’ programme.

‘Plugged in, Powered Up’, our strategy forbuilding digital capacity in the archives
sector, has provided a wide range of support
in a year in which archives were compelled
to turn to digital as never before:
◦

◦

◦

22

by UK archivists using the Manage Your
Collections tool. The system is now
used by over 250 repositories. Over theyear, 200 attendees joined one of eightaccompanying webinars, including three
for community archives networks in
Cornwall, the South West and Norfolk.
■

The Archive Service Accreditation scheme
has remained open, with some elementsof activity scaled down in response to
the pandemic. New applications werepaused for some months, owing topractical restrictions around site visits andrestricted assessment capacity for somepartners in the programme. We have now
piloted remote assessment methods andapplications have reopened. Awards Panels
have continued to meet for oversight ofAccredited Archive Services, including
scheduled reviews, and reports of any
significant changes.

■‘Archives Revealed’ is delivered incollaboration with The Pilgrim Trust and
The Wolfson Foundation. We are grateful toboth partners, who have this year confirmed
their ongoing support for the fund for the
next three years, pledging £300,000 each.
The National Archives too has increased its
contribution, bringing the total funding of
the scheme to £1 million.

Together with the Digital Preservation
Coalition, we launched ‘Novice to KnowHow’, a game-changing series of online
digital preservation modules, which
has been completed by nearly 3,000
learners, 61 per cent of which havebeen from the UK.
We launched a peer mentoring
programme for colleagues undertaking
digital work, incorporating outstanding
support from digital colleagues across
The National Archives and fromdedicated UK archivists from all parts ofthe sector.
Over 1,500 collections were added in2020 to Discovery, our online catalogue,■◦

Cataloguing Grants: In August 2020,
the independent panel met to award£290,324 to eight archive organisations◦

Scoping Grants: During the last financial
year, eight grants were awarded
totalling £24,000

The ‘Collaborate and Innovate’ funding
programme is focused on both
empowering archives to use creativity
and innovation in developing ideas andsolutions, and encouraging the work of--------------------

The National Archives

networks, leading to outcomes that will
make a real difference to archives in the
UK. This is delivered through two funding
programmes:

■

■

◦

Networks for Change Grants: £48,000
has been awarded, in four grants◦

Archive Testbed Grants: £42,739 has
been awarded, in seven grants

We distributed £660,000 of New Burdens
funding to 54 local authority places ofdeposit,2 who accessioned nearly 2.5
kilometres of public records in 2019. The
funding, first made available in 2016, hasbeen provided to support extra activity
during the 10-year transition period.

Scotland, Wales, USA and Canada, four
Independent Research Organisations, andthree industry partners.
■

We have submitted more research
applications than ever this year, 33
compared to 26 last year to 10 funding
bodies. This increased activity reflects bothmore funding opportunities for culturalorganisations and the growing momentumof our research.

■

Our success in winning funding includes
six projects as co-investigators, and two
as principal investigators. The two we areleading are part of the Arts and Humanities
Research Council’s (AHRC) Strategic
Priorities Fund ‘Towards a National
Collection’ research programme. These
projects are partnerships between Higher
Education Institutions and Independent
Research Organisations:

We ran a Manorial Documents Survey togather data on the current use and usersof manorial documents, and the research
it supports. The results from this national
survey will support the future developmentof the Manorial Documents Register(MDR) and plans for a commemorative
programme of events.

For academic and researchers, welead, enable and inspire pioneeringresearch through fostering collaborative
engagement and inclusive practice. We
work to generate new knowledge and drive
progress for archives, the wider communityand society as a whole■ Our research spans disciplines fromcomputer science to history, and archival
to heritage science and beyond, to further
understanding of and access to ourcollections. Increasingly, our research
activity is in multidisciplinary teams thatdraw on collaborative expertise fromacross nine departments at The National
Archives, and from external partners,
including 30 universities in England,
2

Annual Report and Accounts 2020-21■◦‘Deep Discoveries’ joins computer visionexperts, cultural heritage professionals,
and user experience researchers to
explore the opportunities afforded by
AI-enabled visual similarity recognition
technologies for cross-collection image
searching, with an aim to design aprototype demonstrating the ‘research’and ‘discovery’ potentials of a novel
technology to multiple types of users.

◦‘Engaging Crowds: citizen researchand heritage data at scale’
investigates practices around citizen
research projects, particularly ways toimprove the experience of volunteers
with these online projects, andexplores the creation, use, and reuseof heritage data.

We were successful in the highly

Several local authorities manage more than one places of deposit. See Appendix 1 on Page 126 for the full list.
23---------------------

The National Archives

competitive funding call, ‘Capability forCollections’ from the AHRC, securing£264,000 towards new scanning equipment
for our digitisation programme and critical
upgrades for our Heritage Science andConservation Research Laboratory. The
funding enabled the acquisition of an
open-geometry micro-Raman analyser andan upgrade to our multispectral imaging
system, completing our suite of analytical
instruments in the Collection Care studio,
and securing its status as a vital research
hub for archival and library heritage
science research and innovation in the UK.
■■■

Annual Report and Accounts 2020-21of this is in increasing the accessibilityof our online events – of particularimportance as all events are currently
online – such as via video captioning.
■

We welcomed four new collaborative PhD
students, funded through the AHRC’s
Collaborative Doctoral Partnership andDoctoral Training Partnership programmes.
We supported our new and existing
students to continue their research
remotely during lockdown and on sitewhen restrictions allowed.

■

We rose to the challenge of remote
working by rapidly developing a new model
for placements to ensure that students
could still gain experience of working withus. We hosted our first remote student inAugust 2020 and three further placements
are now underway.

A particular highlight of our year was
the UK-US funding call AHRC-National
Endowment for the Humanities New
Directions for Digital Scholarship in Cultural
Institutions. Colleagues are co-investigatorson two projects:◦‘From Lima to Canton and Beyond: An
AI-aided heritage materials researchplatform for studying globalisation
through art’◦‘Digital approaches to the capture
and analysis of watermarks using themanuscripts of Isaac Newton as a testcase’

We are very grateful to The Friends of the
National Archives (FTNA) for supporting a
one-year Research Fellowship on Advanced
Digital Methods. The FTNA Research Fellow
is focussing on records of the First World
War and data from the volunteer citizenresearch project, Operation War Diary.
We have been working to make ouracademic offer more diverse andinclusive. Our audience survey has
deepened our understanding of ourcurrent engagement and one outcome

24Collection Care
■ In 2019, our Collection Care department
created a Treatment Round Table, a forum
to discuss conservation treatment options
for The our unique collection items. Initiallydesigned as an internal discussion group,
during the lockdown periods in 2020-21 theTreatment Round Table rapidly evolved into
an international forum, regularly attracting
over 70 speakers and participants fromaround the world. The agenda feeds into
the wider conservation and archives sectors
as well as higher education.
■

Despite the national lockdowns, we
continued to highlight our collection
through our loans programme. Exhibitionsin the UK, Europe, and the US enabled
access to our collections for 523,821
visitors. Travel restrictions, in particular,
have led to new approaches regarding
the transport and installation of artefacts,--------------------

The National Archives

Annual Report and Accounts 2020-21

maximising the use of technology tofacilitate processes that traditionally rely onhuman presence.
■national lockdown. We took advantageof the shutdown to replace a key pieceof software as preventative maintenanceof our archival storage service. The
infrastructure was restarted in November
2020. We investigated options for a
replacement archival storage service in thelonger-term, with a view to minimising our
exposure to supplier risk. We managed
the transfer of 17,180 born-digital records
from government departments into thearchive and helped others to prepare forupcoming transfers, including from two
public inquiries.

We reviewed and renewed our agreementwith the British Film Institute to store andcare for our moving images collection.

Over the last few years, we have madeimportant changes to the ways we think
and work in order to become a digitalarchive by instinct and design■ We pioneered the development of
DiAGRAM, the Digital Archives Graphical Risk
Assessment Model, working with the Applied
Statistics and Risk Unit at the Universityof Warwick and a group of other archives.
DiAGRAM was funded by the National Lottery
Heritage Fund. It is an integrated decision
support system for digital archives, basedon a digital preservation risk model usinga Dynamic Bayesian Network. The model
combines the experience of a range ofinstitutions. It allows archivists to investigate
potential mitigations to digital preservation
risks and judge the relative effectiveness ofdifferent interventions. DiAGRAM reached
the final shortlist in the Digital Preservation
Awards 2020.
■

We started work to develop a private
beta for a new website for The National
Archives, which will better meet the needsof our users and help us to more creatively
engage the public.

■

We switched off our digital records
infrastructure at the start of the first■We developed our capacity as a digitalarchive. We have been working on
developing a private beta for a newservice to Transfer Digital Records fromgovernment departments. The scopeof the private beta service is limited toopen records. We started work on a
new catalogue management system,
which turns our current catalogue intoa knowledge graph about the wholecollection. We also improved the catalogue,
with 471,546 enhancements to catalogue
descriptions made during the year.

■

We were an active and contributing
member of the Digital Preservation
Coalition, the DLM Forum and the Open
Preservation Foundation, as well as
continuing to participate in the Archives
Portal Europe Foundation.

25---------------------

The National Archives

International work and collaboration■ We are longstanding members of theInternational Council on Archives (ICA)
through which we hold the Presidencyof the Forum of National Archivists (FAN)
comprising more than 160 national or
central archive institutions. Together,
we form part of a global network which
advocates the importance and impact ofarchives of all kinds and is dedicated tothe preservation of the world’s archival
heritage. Last year, a partnershipstatement, ‘COVID-19: The duty to
document does not cease in a crisis, it
becomes more essential‘, was published,
an activity coordinated jointly by The
National Archives and the ICA. Partners
include the International Conferenceof Information Commissioners (ICIC),
ARMA International, Codata, the Digital
Preservation Coalition (DPC), Research
Data Alliance, UNESCO Memory of theWorld and World Data Systems. The
statement reiterated the significant
value and contribution archives make tointernational information best practice.

26

Annual Report and Accounts 2020-21■

Via the FAN Steering Committee,
represented by members of the four
geographic regions, and convened throughour Presidency, our peers shared theirinformative experiences on their respective
country’s handling of the pandemic todate, while looking positively aheadto the ICA’s strategic reflections whichalign with FAN’s (and in many respects)
those of The National Archives. One
such reflection includes the changing
landscape for archives across intellectual
property and information rights, and as aresult of our intervention (as part of the
ICA’s Expert Group on Legal Matters), a
draft proposed Declaration on Copyrighthas been produced. Like other joint ICA
initiatives, the aim of this Declaration is toinform conversations on ways to improve
copyright provisions internationally, which
we plan to do in greater collaboration withpartners such as the World Intellectual
Property Organization – for the benefit ofarchives worldwide.

--------------------

The National Archives

1.2

Annual Report and Accounts 2020-21

Performance analysis

Financial management commentary
Parliamentary Support – Income andExpenditure
The National Archives continues to manage
its resources effectively, with sound financial
control frameworks and a strong organisational
engagement with its fiduciary duties.
Our net resource and capital outturn was£40.0 million compared to the HM Treasury
net allocation of £42.1 million (£2.1 million or
5.0 per cent adverse variance). A significant
driver of this variance was the depreciation
charge which was £1.1 million lower thanestimated. This is because the amount charged
was calculated using the prior year valuation
whereas the estimated charge was based on
the projected valuation. The remaining outturn
variance was affected by lower staff recruitment
than originally planned owing to the challenges
arising from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Total Net Operating Expenditure
Total Net Operating Expenditure, shown on
the Statement of Comprehensive Expenditure,was £36.5 million (2019-20: £36.0 million). This
does not include £3.5 million of capital spend,which is built into the Parliamentary Support
statement above and the Statement of Outturn
against Parliamentary Support (SoPS). The net
figure is made up of the following:i) Total Operating Expenditure
Total Operating Expenditure of delivering ourremit as the official archive and publisher
for the UK Government, and for England andWales, was £47.5 million. Staff costs amounted
to £25.9 million (2019-20: £24.5 million) with thenumber of employees increasing by 9 Full Time
Equivalent (FTE) during the year to 507 at 31

March 2021 (2019-20: 498). New appointments,
which were at higher than average grades,
together with the in year pay award and theincrease in a holiday pay provision result in
an increase in staff costs. Further information
can be found in the staff report on page 52. Itshould be noted that the increase in FTE andhence the year-on-year variance was in line with
our plans and budgets.
Operating Expenditure, excluding staff
costs, depreciation, provisions and audit
charges, amounted to £15.4 million (2019-20:£18.7 million). This reduction is mainly owing
to the expenditure relating to a softwaredevelopment contract in 2019-20 together
with reductions in costs relating to publicaccess and travel due to COVID-19 pandemic
restrictions. These reductions were partially
offset by an increase in the holiday pay accrualin 2020-21 resulting from the COVID-19
pandemic, together with an increase in grants
paid, which included the additional funding
received for the COVID-19 Emergency Fund.
ii) Total Operating Income
Total operating income for the financial year
was £11.0 million (2019-20: £13.5 million). The
reduction relates primarily to income related
to the software development contract that wascompleted in 2019-20 together with reductionsin income relating to on site services such asrecord copying, retail, conservation income
and digital reprographics, which were all
disrupted by COVID-19. However, the impactof the on site closure was more than offset
by increases in commercial licensing andGazettes’ income: both performed strongly inthe latter half of the year.
27---------------------

The National Archives

Total Capital Expenditure
The Total Capital Expenditure in 2020-21
of £3.5 million (2019-20: £2.8 million) was£0.2 million below the final allocation of£3.7 million. The outturn was affected by thecontinued closure of the building and the delayof projects that spanned the year end.
Financial position
Assets and liabilities are shown in theStatement of Financial Position on page 77.
Assets less liabilities totalled £193.3 million at
31 March 2021 (2019-20: £190.2 million).
Total assets at 31 March 2021 were
£198.9 million (2019-20: £196.9 million).
Property, plant and equipment andintangible assets represented 97.2 per centof the asset value (2019-20: 97.6 per cent).
A professional valuation, undertaken at 31
March 2021, valued the land and buildings at£152.1 million.
Total current assets at 31 March 2021 were
£5.4 million (2019-20: £4.7 million). The
increase is explained mainly by Trade andother receivables increasing by £0.6 million(see note 8). At 31 March 2021, 90 per cent of
the trade receivables related to money owed
from a concessionary contract that has been
paid in full since the year end.

28

Annual Report and Accounts 2020-21

Total liabilities were £5.6 million at 31
March 2021 (2019-20: £6.7 million). Accruals
decreased from £2.6 million to £1.2 million(see note 9), as more works on the estate,legislation software development and IT
services were underway at 31 March 2020.
There was also an increase of £0.5 million inyear relating to the holiday pay accrual(see note 9).
Financial outlook
Notwithstanding the impact of COVID-19 in
2020-21, significant uncertainty remains withrespect to the extent of the pandemic’s impact
in 2021-22. The National Archives has adapted
to a more agile model of financial stewardship,
which includes its financial control, planning,
analysis and modelling structures. Continued
challenges around on site income will be offset
against the increase in online-driven income
streams.
The majority of our commercial income
remains embedded in the digital exploitationof our intangible assets, and we are projecting
to realise greater ambition in this key growtharea. The outcome of the forthcoming
Spending Review and the determination of theapplication for Commercial Freedoms will bepivotal in determining the strategic objectives,
outlined in ‘Archives for Everyone’.

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The National Archives

Annual Report and Accounts 2020-21

Performance against our business priorities
Two year business priorities – year 1
Goal

How we were to achieve thisStatus at end 2020-21

Capture the record andaid legal certainty

Work with other government
departments to ensure,during the pandemic and in
its aftermath, that records arecaptured, kept and transferred to
The National Archives

Paper transfers: Not On
Track – Delivery ConfidenceHigh – COVID-19 has impacted
government departments’ ability
to transfer records under the
20-year rule. We successfullycompleted a pilot transfer of
440,000 MoD Service Personnel
Records – the equivalent of six
years’ worth of transfers over a
period of six weeks.
Digital transfers: On track

Develop the infrastructure
to archive the Government’s
response to the first global
pandemic in the digital age

Not On Track – Delivery
Confidence High – The impact of
COVID-19 on the development of
the new Transfer Digital Records
service has delayed the release of
the Private Beta by two months
to May 2021.

Provide access for everyone tothe legislation that governs us
at a time of unprecedented andrapid change to the statute book

On track

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The National Archives

Take the collection to
new audiences

Realise the value ofarchives throughresearch, innovationand commercial
exploitation

30

Annual Report and Accounts 2020-21

Grow a bigger and more diverse
audience through public
engagement, partnership andcollaboration

On track

Enable more people to encounterour collection online, betterhelp them to understand it, andsupport their participation

Not On Track – Delivery
Confidence High – We prioritised
developing and launching a newseat booking service for the reopening of Kew.

Expand online access to anincreased range of digitised
records, achieving whereappropriate a commercial return

Not On Track – Delivery
Confidence High – We
prioritised delivering a free digital
downloads service, enabling overtwo million downloads (a 35-foldincrease), by 137,000 users (a7-fold increase). Website pageviews were up by 45 per centcompared to 2019.

Build our grants’ portfolio,
our approach to researchdevelopment and our researchexpertise to enable pioneeringresearch that benefits The
National Archives, our audiences,and the wider economy

Not On Track – Delivery
Confidence High – Theestablishment of a new Grants
and Funding Office has been
agreed. The recruitment for the
Head of Grants and Funding rolebegan in April 2021.

Realise increasing commercial
returns from our estate, ourcollection, our expertise, and ourintangible asset base

Not On Track – Delivery
Confidence High – Total
earned income returned £11.0
million at the end of the year
versus the July 2020 forecastof £11.3 million. The impact ofthe pandemic in the second halfof the year caused significant
disruption to our on site revenue,
but other income streams proved
to be highly resilient.

Ensure these commercial returns
are invested to optimise longterm benefit

On track--------------------

The National Archives

Lead the archives
sector to a secure andsustainable future

Change the way wework

Annual Report and Accounts 2020-21

Through partnership, work tosafeguard the nation’s archival
heritage from threats presented
by the current crisis

On track

Develop and deliver professional
development opportunities,
resources and training thatcreate new skills, open up newroutes into the profession andenhance the diversity and social
mobility of the archives sector
workforce

On track

Reshape our approach to sector
leadership to meet the demandsof the post-lockdown world,
supporting archives services
to increase their capability andsustainability and adapt theirservice models

Not On Track – Delivery
Confidence High – Building
on our work with the sector in
2020-21, work is now underway
to gather further intelligence
to inform options for a future
approach to sector leadership.

Refresh our Values and develop a
new People Strategy

Not On Track – Delivery
Confidence High – Preparatory
work has been completed aheadof the recruitment of the new
Director of People, Inclusion andChange.

Take positive action to improve
representation

On track

Through our new People
Strategy, build a culture andtechnical infrastructure thatenables and supports 21st
century working

On track

31---------------------

The National Archives

Annual Report and Accounts 2020-21

Performance against our input and impact indicators
Our input and impact indicators demonstrate
our overall performance as an organisation,
our commitment to quality, and illustrateevidence of the effectiveness of the priorities
set out in our business plan. They arepresented as year-on-year comparisons sothat we can track our progress within any
given year.

To ensure we can be held accountable as
we move forward in delivering our strategic
priorities, underpinned by the Government’s
Transparency agenda, we also publish a
number of discretionary (non-financial)
indicators on our website, which include staff
engagement and diversity.

Performance against our input indicators
Input indicator

2020-21 Outcome

2019-20 Outcome

Original records delivered toon site users

71,328508,284

Electronic records delivered
to online users

447,547,640

371,728,677

Women

53.4% (average)

52.6% (average)

Top management women

54.1% (average)

52.9% (average)

Black and Minority Ethnic

14.7% (average)3

17.8% (average)

Disabled

6.1% (average)

5.8% (average)

Staff engagement (asreported by the Civil Service
People Survey)

75%

71%

Time taken to deliver
original records to on siteusers

The on-demand document
service was not available
during 2020-21 due to
COVID-19 restrictions

93% of documents delivered tousers within one hour

Staff diversity:

3

The methodology for calculating the average percentage of Black and Minority Ethnic staff changed in 2020-21 to
the per cent declaring as a proportion of the whole workforce, rather than only of those that declared ethnicity.
32--------------------

The National Archives

Annual Report and Accounts 2020-21

Time taken to respond to
Freedom of Information, andEnvironmental Information
Regulation requests

89% of enquiries responded towithin statutory deadlines

91% of enquiries responded towithin statutory deadlines

Total departmental spend£34.2 million£32.6 million

Input indicator

2020-21 Outcome

2019-20 Outcome

Staff sick absence

3.7 days per FTE (average)

6.1 days per FTE (average)

Outstanding effects on
legislation.gov.uk

69,615 amendments applied
to primary legislation onlegislation.gov.uk

63,288 amendments applied
to primary legislation onlegislation.gov.uk

Number of physical records
accessioned

91,286 pieces
1,007 metres

72,899 pieces
2,018 metres

Performance against our impact indicators
Input indicator

2020-21 Outcome

2019-20 Outcome

Web continuity4

Web Archive Services –Sessions

Web Archive Services –Sessions

Total: 2.6 million

Total: 3.8 million

Web Archive Services – Users

Web Archive Services – Users

Total: 2 million

Total: 3 million

88%

87%

Customer satisfaction %on site users

4What was previously referred to as UK Government Web Archive ‘visits’ are now termed ‘sessions’; what wasformerly ‘visitors’ is now termed ‘users’. This is to be consistent and clear with respect to our analytics data, which
now uses Google Analytics. The effect of this is to reduce the headline figure in comparison to server log analysis,
which was our previous method. Furthermore, we are now reporting usage metrics for two web archive services: theUK Government Web Archive (http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/webarchive/) and the EU Exit Web Archive https://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/eu-exit/.
33---------------------

The National Archives

Annual Report and Accounts 2020-21

Online users

Unlike previous years, thewebsite satisfaction metrics
have been calculated fromseveral separate surveys.
As such, it allows a greater
understanding of performanceof individual elements within
our online offer, but to note
is not a directly comparable
metric to previous years.

53%

legislation.gov.uk users5

59%

79%

Records and information
management services used
across government6

The Information Management
Assessment Programme iscurrently being revised andfigures are not available thisyear.

2 Information Management
Assessments completed
2 Information Management
Assessment reports published
1 action plan published
1 annual review reportpublished
3 formal review meetings
undertaken

Further details of how we measure our performance can be found on our website under the section,‘Our role’, which includes our long-term strategic plans and our transparency reporting.7

5

The online users’ satisfaction survey results are down this year as we were not able to get responses from the fullrange of people due to the COVID-19 crisis.

6

The Information Management Assessment (IMA) programme is currently being evaluated. This means that thesefigures are not included in this annual report. The assessment criteria will be updated, and we will also aim to widen thenumber of public record bodies who can benefit from it. A publication model for this new iteration of the programmeis to be decided. As a result, assessment numbers and publication figures will not be reported on until the newassessment programme has been developed, trialled and implemented. Please see: nationalarchives.gov.uk/informationmanagement/manage-information/ima/ima-reports-action-plans/ for all previously published reports and action plans.
Progress on a refreshed programme will be communicated in due course.

7

nationalarchives.gov.uk/our-role34--------------------

The National Archives

Environment and sustainability
During 2020-21, we continued to reduce theenvironmental impact of our operations.
This reduction was significantly influenced by
the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, withstaff predominately working from home andthe building being closed to the public formuch of the year. We achieved an 80 per centreduction in carbon emissions, compared withthe baseline year of 2009-10, and against theGovernment target of a 32 per cent reduction.

Annual Report and Accounts 2020-21

support our local community stakeholders in
the following ways:■

Maintained our grounds and ornamental
ponds as a local amenity for our staff,
visitors, and local residents to enjoy. The
grounds were open to the public fromdawn until dusk, 364 days of the year,
and remained open during the COVID-19
crisis, subject to social distancing
requirements.

■

Maintained our surface water drainage
arrangements to meet our obligations
to the flood defences of the local area,
supporting the Environment Agency and
the Port of London Authority’s Thames
flood defence maintenance work.

■

We reduced our paper consumption by 99 per
cent, compared with the previous year and nodomestic flights were taken.

Communicated regularly with ourneighbours and local residents regarding
planned maintenance and project works.

■

In 2020-21, we used 38 per cent less watercompared with the 2009-10 baseline year,
which represents an 11 per cent decrease
compared with the previous year.

Continued membership and participation
with the Richmond Chamber ofCommerce and key employers across theborough.

■

For further information, please see
Sustainability accounting and reporting (Annex
A) on page 101.

Liaised with the Swan Sanctuary formonitoring the wellbeing of resident
wildfowl on our grounds.

■

Supported the London Borough ofRichmond upon Thames’ environmental
initiatives.

We have worked to meet and exceed ourobligations under the Greening Government
Commitments8 sending no waste to landfill
and reducing the overall waste we producedby 88 per cent, compared with the baseline
year of 2010-11, against a target of a 30 per
cent reduction.

While the impact of COVID-19 has restricted
in-person engagement, we have continued to8

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/greening-government-commitments-2016-to-2020.
35---------------------

The National Archives■

Our embedded learning spaces are
now furnished and will be used by theeducation team as part of our engagementwith schools and the local community.
We look forward to welcoming thesegroups and using this space as COVID-19
restrictions ease.

Annual Report and Accounts 2020-21■

Meetings previously held on site were notpossible owing to COVID-19 restrictions.

Jeff James,
Chief Executive and Keeper,
12 July 2021-

36

Accountability
report2

The National Archives

Annual Report and Accounts 2020-21

2.1 Corporate governance reportStatement from Lesley Cowley OBE, Chair of The National Archives’
Board
This report marks the second year of The
National Archives’ strategy, ‘Archives forEveryone’, and like many other institutions,
we have undergone rapid, often wholescale
adjustments in how we operate over thecourse of the last 12 months. The National
Archives forms a part of the UK Government’s
wider response to the Coronavirus (COVID-19)
pandemic, and thus revised its businesspriorities accordingly.
Despite the challenges, The National Archives
remains committed to its strategic goals,
while mindful of the impact of the pandemic
on our staff and business. This includes
the exhaustive and timely publication ofCoronavirus legislation; enhancing our public
programming into an online and accessible
platform for as many people as possible toexperience; and working more closely with thearchives sector to support the preservation of
documentary heritage across the UK during
difficult times. These mentions are a sampleof the colossal and noteworthy efforts ofthe people both within and outside of theorganisation during this challenging time.
With this in mind, the Board was pleased tooversee progress and completion in several
significant areas. One highlight for us was thelaunch of ‘Becoming the Inclusive Archive’,
which sets out The National Archives’ approach
to inclusion and to making meaningfulchanges as an organisation over the next
decade. The Board remains encouraged by the-

38

organisation’s leadership and supports their
aim of seeking further opportunities of benefit,
such as sustainable commercial activities.
Over the last year, the Board continued tomeet (virtually) and it was humbling to see
the demonstrable level of focus and carefrom the leadership team in navigating theorganisation through the many challenges it
faced. We know that The National Archives’
team have been doing their utmost to provide
the services expected by our many audiences
during this period.
There were no retirements of Non-executive
Board members during the period, but wewere very pleased to welcome Sonia Cargan as
an additional Non-executive Board member,whose expertise will provide the Board with aninvigorating new perspective.
The impact of the pandemic will be felt for awhile to come, but the achievements of thelast year are testament to the tireless efforts ofour staff and the partners who work with, andfor, The National Archives. I would like to thankeveryone for their continued commitment andsupport and look forward to further positive
developments to come.

Lesley Cowley OBE,
Chair of The National Archives’ Board,
15 June 2021

The National Archives

Annual Report and Accounts 2020-21

Directors’ report
About The National Archives
Our remit is summarised on pages 9 to 24 ofthis report.

Directorate/Function

Management and structure
During the year under review, our duties werecarried out by the following directorates andfunctions.

Who

Responsible for

Chief Executive andKeeperJeff James, Chief Executive
and Keeper

Our future direction and current
performance and is accountable toministers for both. As Keeper of Public
Records and Historical Manuscripts
Commissioner, he holds the offices ofQueen’s Printer of Acts of Parliament(responsible for publishing all UK
legislation, and the official newspapers ofrecord, ‘The Gazette’); Queen’s Printer for
Scotland and Controller of Her Majesty’s
Stationery Office; and the office ofGovernment Printer for Northern Ireland.

Chief Operating Officer(from 1 March 2021)
Formerly
Finance and Commercial

Neil Curtis,
Chief Operating Officer(from 1 March 2021)
Formerly Finance andCommercial Director

Supporting the Accounting Officer. Ourfinancial and procurement functions
and driving the development of ourcommercial capacities in new andinnovative ways.

Public Engagement

Caroline Ottaway-Searle,
Director of Public
Engagement

Our public engagement strategy, anddeveloping on site, online, and remotelearning and engagement programmes
for the public and wider educational
audiences.

Paul Davies,
Operations Director

Our business-critical functions, including
the estates and facilities, security, IT
operations, corporate and strategicplanning, and human resources.

9

Operations

9

Caroline Ottaway-Searle retired on 31 March 2021. Emmajane Avery joined The National Archives on 1 March 2021
as the new Director of Public Engagement.
39---------------------

The National Archives

Research andCollections

DigitalGovernment andInformation Rights

Annual Report and Accounts 2020-21

Dr Valerie Johnson,
Director of Research andCollections

Our research, academic engagement,
and conservation programmes, using ourcollections to enhance access. Our active
support for the archives sector to secure
the best possible long-term future for
their collections and services.

John Sheridan,
Digital Director

Our digital services, enabling us to
fulfil our ambition to become a digitalarchive by instinct and design. To provide
strategic direction, transform our digitaloffer, and to shape and drive forward
our cataloguing and web-based services.

Lucy Fletcher,
Director for Government
and Information Rights

Our offer to Government, providing
expert advice and guidance togovernment departments and publicbodies; driving strategic compliancewith statutory obligations, including
the transition to the 20-year rule; andenabling the growth of digital capability
for the future preservation of born-digital
government records.

Further information about the organisation and directorate functions can be found on our website on
the Our Staff web pages at: nationalarchives.gov.uk/about/our-role/transparency/our-staff

40--------------------

The National Archives

The National Archives’ Board10
The National Archives’ Board is the key
strategic advisory body of the organisation.
It consists of the Chief Executive and Keeper,six Executive Directors, Chair of the Board andfour Non-executive Board members, who are:Lesley Cowley OBE
Chair of the The National Archives’ Board
Dr Claire Feehily
Non-executive Board member, Chair of the
Audit and Risk Committee
Sonia Cargan11
Non-executive Board member
Mark Richards
Non-executive Board member
Baroness (Ros) Scott of Needham Market,
Non-executive Board member
Read more about our Executive Team:nationalarchives.gov.uk/about/our-role/
executive-team and Board members:
nationalarchives.gov.uk/about/our-role/
management-board on our website.

Annual Report and Accounts 2020-21

Audit
The financial statements have been auditedby the National Audit Office on behalf of theComptroller and Auditor General. The audit fee
was £75,000 (see note 4 to the accounts). The
National Audit Office did not provide any nonaudit services during the year.
As far as the Accounting Officer is aware,
there is no relevant audit information of which
the National Audit Office is unaware. The
Accounting Officer has taken all steps necessary
to keep themselves informed of any relevant
audit information and to establish that theentity’s auditors are notified of that information.
Public sector information
The National Archives have complied with thecost allocation and charging requirements
set out by HM Treasury. We are one of the
public sector bodies now brought fully within
the scope of the Re-use of Public Sector
Information Regulations 2015 and we havetaken steps to ensure that we comply withthose Regulations, including publishing astatement of our public task.12

Governance statement
The National Archives’ Board is the main
governance body of the organisation. It consistsof the Chief Executive, six Executive Directors,
Chair of the Board and four Non-executive Board
members. The Board is attended by the Headof Strategy and Chief Executive’s Office and theHead of Governance. Formal Board meetings
usually take place 10 times a year and include
one or two strategy days.
Supporting and informing the work of the Board

are the Audit and Risk Committee and theNominations and Governance Committee.
The National Archives’ Board is responsible
for ensuring that the leadership of The
National Archives:■ sets the strategic direction and makes
strategic choices■

provides leadership in the deliveryof statutory, corporate, and business
responsibilities

10

In addition, Robert Milburn is the Independent Member of the Audit and Risk Committee.

11

Sonia Cargan joined The National Archives’ Board from 19 January 2021.

12

nationalarchives.gov.uk/about/our-role/what-we-do
41---------------------

The National Archives

Annual Report and Accounts 2020-21■

makes key investment, procurement andproject decisions that withstand scrutiny

who also engage closely with the business to givestrong assurance and governance.

■

identifies and manages risks effectively■

encourages improvements in performanceacross the organisation■

takes corporate responsibility for its
decisions and their implementation.

Register of Board interests
At the beginning of each Board meeting, allmembers are asked to declare any potential
conflicts of interest. These are noted in theminutes and where the matter is deemed toconstitute a conflict, the members remove
themselves from Board discussions relating
to the individual agenda items. In 2020-21,
there were no declared conflicts of interest
which resulted in a Board member recusing
themselves from discussion of an item. Board
members are also responsible for ensuringthat entries in the Register of Interests aremaintained and updated as necessary.
The Register of Interests is available on thewebsite. For further details on related party
transactions, see page 99.

The role of Board members is to:provide effective challenge through open
debate on Board matters■■ensure the right information and evidence
is available to make decisions, measureperformance and provide assurance■

uphold the values of the organisation
as well as those expressed in the Seven
Principles of Public Life.13

The Board has a rolling agenda. Fixed agenda
items include monthly financial reporting,quarterly business and performance reporting
and bi-annual corporate risk register review.
The Board also reviews budget and strategic
priorities and scrutinises major procurement
and policy decisions affecting our future
strategic direction. Minutes of Board meetings
are available on the website at https://www.
nationalarchives.gov.uk/about/our-role/
management-board/meeting-summaries
The Board is content that the data with which it isprovided is adequate, timely and comprehensive,
and there are robust arrangements for reviewing
and checking data.
All Board members meet formally and informallywith other senior managers and may bemembers of specific high-profile project andprogramme boards, as required. We have an
active group of Non-executive Board members,
13

Board effectiveness and performance
The Board undertakes an annual review of its
effectiveness, using a survey of its members to
inform in-depth discussion. This year, the Board
again concluded that it was working well despite
it being a challenging year, but could increase its
focus on strategic items and horizon scanning as
the organisation emerges out of the pandemic.
Challenge on performance of the Board isprovided by the Non-executive Board members
and other Board members. In this, the Board
is informed by the findings of the Board
Effectiveness Survey and its resulting Action Plan.
The Executive TeamThe Executive Team is the decision-making body ofthe organisation. It consists of the Chief Executive
and Keeper and Executive Directors. The Headof Strategy and Chief Executive’s Office and/or
a Deputy also attend Executive Team meetings

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-7-principles-of-public-life42--------------------

The National Archives

which were typically held fortnightly during 202021. The role of the Executive Team is to:■■■fulfil The National Archives’ statutory
responsibilities and deliver its strategic andbusiness priorities
drive and manage improvements inbusiness and financial performance
drive innovation, transparency andefficiencies that support delivery of strategic
objectives and give value for money■

identify high-level risks, ensuring theireffective mitigation and business continuity■

review and agree corporate policies■

direct and support managers to deliver key
investments and major projects■

lead strategic staff management andresourcing.

The business of the Executive Team is managed
in a way that is inclusive, regularly inviting
business updates from the staff members
responsible for delivery. The Executive Directors
are responsible for cascading summaries of
Executive Team business to the rest of theorganisation. Minutes of Executive Teams
meetings are available on the website at https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/about/our-role/
executive-team/meeting-summaries
Informal challenge encourages staff to bringreal issues to the Executive Team’s attention. In
addition, Directors attend ‘question and answer’sessions. All members of staff are invited toattend and may ask any question about therunning of the organisation or current concerns.
Any questions may be submitted anonymously
in order to encourage openness.
The Audit and Risk Committee
The Audit and Risk Committee is a subcommittee of the Board to support theAnnual Report and Accounts 2020-21

Accounting Officer and Board members in their
responsibilities for issues of risk, internal control
and governance, and associated assurance by:■reviewing the effectiveness of theassurance framework in meeting the Board
and Accounting Officer’s assurance needs■

reviewing the reliability and integrity ofthese assurances■

providing an opinion on how well the Boardand the Accounting Officer are supported
in decision-taking and in discharging theiraccountability obligations (particularly inrespect of Financial Reporting).

The Audit and Risk Committee meets quarterly
and is the main oversight committee for theorganisation. Membership comprises of the
Chair of the Audit and Risk Committee, anotherNon-executive Board member and an appointed
independent member. Additional Non-executive
Board members may be co-opted when needed.
Other attendees at each meeting are the Chief
Executive and Keeper, the Chief Operating
Officer, the Operations Director, representatives
from our external auditors from the National
Audit Office, representatives from the Internal
Auditors (BDO UK LLP), the Head of Governanceand the Corporate Performance Manager(Secretary). Traditionally, other Non-executives,
Executive Directors and senior staff members
may be invited to attend particular meetings fordiscussion of individual agenda items.
Proposed areas for internal audit focus are
informed by discussions with the Committee
and the Executive Team, together with theinternal auditors’ understanding of our control
environment, the Corporate Risk Register,and results of previous work performed.
Reports from the internal auditors are copied
to Committee members as soon as they
are finalised. The Committee monitors theimplementation of recommendations made by43---------------------

The National Archives

the internal auditors, taking reports and evidenceof progress as a standing agenda item. Any
overdue recommendations are reported to the
Executive Team in advance of each Committee
meeting, and Executive Directors may be called
to appear before the Committee to account forslippage on implementation dates.

Annual Report and Accounts 2020-21

culture of fraud awareness and mitigation andhighlighted any new areas for potential fraud.
■

Security (including information assurance,
cyber security risks, and data handling) andBusiness Continuity: the Committee notedthat there were no significant breaches of
security. It was also given assurance thatour performance against HMG Minimum
Security Standards was assessed via the
Departmental Security Health Check
return to the Cabinet Office. Importantly,
the Committee received a high level ofassurance that The National Archives’
Business Continuity Management Systemand specifically its Pandemic Action Plan,
ensured critical services continued during
the COVID-19 crisis.

■

Health and safety: The Committee gained
assurance that there is a safe working
environment for staff, visitors, andcontractors at The National Archives, andthat, in line with Government guidance, thebuilding is COVID-19 secure.

■

Environment and sustainability: this gave
the Committee assurance that we areon track to meet Greening Government
Commitments.

■

Human Resources Governance: this gave
the Committee understanding of thecurrent human resource risks and provided
assurance that avenues for confidential
reporting (whistleblowing) within ourorganisation were understood and had
been tested. Importantly, the Committee
gained regular assurance that appropriate
measures and resources were in place tohelp support the positive mental healthand wellbeing of The National Archives’
staff during the COVID-19 crisis.

■

Safeguarding Report: this report gave theCommittee assurance that we are fulfilling

The internal auditors also conduct an annual
review to follow up their recommendations,which provides further independent assurance
to the Committee. For the reporting year, theinternal annual opinion was that there is anadequate and effective system of governance,risk management and internal control in placethroughout The National Archives.
The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on theorganisation, in terms of financial performance,
new and emerging risks, crisis management,
business continuity and resilience, has been akey priority for the Committee throughout theyear, and the Committee has worked very closelywith The National Archives’ Board and Executive
Team to support the organisation’s response to
the pandemic.
The Committee maintains a list of risk assurance
processes and items to be reported to eachmeeting to structure its agenda. The list
encompasses a number of regular updates
during the year. This year, these included:■

Progress on the implementation ofrecommendations from internal audit
reviews: the Committee received assurance
that management was taking appropriate
action to fully implement internal audit
recommendations or provided businessjustification if implementation deadlines(which are set by the owner as part oftheir management response to each
recommendation) were not met.

■

Fraud risk assessment: this gave theCommittee further assurance we have a44--------------------

The National Archives

our statutory responsibilities.
■

Procurement Report: this bi-annual update
gave assurance to the Committee that
there is sound oversight and managementof any potential risks and opportunities
associated with our procurement andcommercial activities.

■

Risk Management Policy and Risk Appetite:
the Committee received assurance
that our appetite and tolerance for risk
management control within various
areas of the business were adequate andeffective.

■

Corporate Risks: through regular scrutinyof the Corporate Risk Register and thespecific COVID-19 Risk Register, theCommittee actively continued to closely
monitor and review the associated risks
around The National Archives’ ability tooperate efficiently and effectively as a‘virtual’ organisation, and importantly
assess the impact on the organisation’s
ability to deliver its statutory duties andother obligations.

■

Accountability Statements: this annual
update provided the Committee withassurance that business-as-usual
risks were being managed effectively
throughout the organisation.

In addition, the Committee received regular
updates and progress reports on other issues ofparticular interest. This year, progress updates
included assurance regarding:■the 1921 Online Census Project■modelling and measuring digitalpreservation risk using DiAGRAM (an online
tool that archives can employ to aid theirpreservation planning)■

Places of Deposit risk contingency planning

Annual Report and Accounts 2020-21■

a potentially revised allocation procedure
for the New Burdens payments to both
Places of Deposit (PoDs) and coroner’s
courts for 2020 accessions of public records.

In November 2020, the Committee undertooka review of its effectiveness using a selfassessment checklist enabling qualitativeand quantitative results. The results from thisself-assessment exercise (which also included
feedback from other Non-executive Board
members who do not sit on the Audit and Risk
Committee) were predominately positive withvery few proposals for change. There will be asignificant number of senior staff, non-executive
board members and other committee members
leaving the organisation over the next 18
months. In order to mitigate the potential risk oflost skills, knowledge, and expertise throughout
the organisation, one of the outputs from theself-assessment review was that a ‘workforce
roadmap’ should be created to facilitate effective
succession planning across The National
Archives to identify and fill potential gaps inskillset and expertise.
The Nominations and GovernanceCommittee
The Nominations and Governance Committee
is a key forum for discussion of leadershipdevelopment and succession planning, and thedecision-making body for the pay and bonusesof all our senior Civil Service staff except for the
Chief Executive and Keeper.
The Nominations and Governance Committee
meets a minimum of twice a year. Pay increases
are in line with guidance provided by the
Cabinet Office, which hears the outcome of
the Review Body on Senior Salaries and sets
the pay policy for senior salaries across the
Civil Service. The Committee ensures that
there are satisfactory systems for identifying
and developing staff with high potential. It ischaired by the Chair of The National Archives’
45---------------------

The National Archives

Board and membership consists of all Nonexecutive Board members, the Chief Executive
and Keeper in an advisory capacity, and theHead of Human Resources and Organisational
Development provides secretarial support.
The Corporate Governance CodeAs a non-ministerial department, we adopt andadhere to HM Treasury’s Corporate Governancein Central Government: Code of Good
Practice 2017 to the extent that it is practical,
appropriate and not incompatible with any
statutory or other authoritative requirements.
We periodically review the Board’s effectivenessand corporate governance to ensure that italigns with good practice elsewhere acrossgovernment – taking into account its uniquerole and responsibilities, and the statutory

46

Annual Report and Accounts 2020-21

and non-statutory roles fulfilled by its senior
officials. The current structure enables theNon-executive Board members to challenge
the Chief Executive and Keeper and Executive
Team, to clearly position it as an advisory body,and to shape the Board agenda.
Attendance at Board meetings and the
Audit and Risk Committee for the Chief
Executive, Executive Directors and Nonexecutive Board members
The Chief Executive and Keeper, Executive
Directors, and Non-executive Board members
attended the following numbers of Board andCommittee meetings (for which they were
eligible to attend) during the year:--------------------

The National Archives

Annual Report and Accounts 2020-21

Nominationsand GovernanceCommittee

Name

Role

Board

Audit and Risk
Committee

Jeff James

Chief Executive
and Keeper

10 of 10

4 of 44 of 4

Neil Curtis

Chief Operating
Officer

10 of 10

4 of 4

N/A

Paul Davies

Operations
Director

10 of 10

4 of 4

N/A

Lucy Fletcher

Director for
Government
and Information
Rights10 of 10

N/A

N/A

Dr Valerie
JohnsonDirector of
Research andCollections

10 of 10

N/A

N/A

Caroline
Ottaway-Searle14

Director of Public
Engagement

10 of 10

N/A

3 of 415

John Sheridan

Digital Director

10 of 10

N/A

N/A

Lesley Cowley
OBE

Chair of theBoard

10 of 10

N/A

4 of 4

Sonia Cargan16

Non-executive
Board member

3 of 3N/A

2 of 2Dr Claire Feehily

Non-executive
Board member

9 of 10

4 of 44 of 4Robert Milburn

Independent
member of the
Audit and Risk
Committee

N/A

4 of 4

N/A

14

Emmajane Avery, the incoming Director of Public Engagement also attended the March 2021 meeting.

15

Caroline Ottaway-Searle attended to provide secretariat support in place of the Head of Human Resources andOrganisation Development.

16

Sonia Cargan joined 19 January 2021.

47---------------------

The National Archives

Annual Report and Accounts 2020-21

Mark Richards

Non-executive
Board member

9 of 10

4 of 44 of 4Baroness(Ros) Scott of
Needham Market

Non-executive
Board member

10 of 10

N/A

4 of 4

Managing our risks
We have a well-established approach tothe management of risk at all levels. It
encourages risk management as an enabling
tool to balance risk and innovation across theorganisation.
In 2020-21, our risks fell under the following
categories:■

Operational and policy delivery■

Commercial■

Financial and value for money■

Reputational and credibility: general■

Reputational and credibility: interaction
with ministers■

Compliance: legal, regulatory and data.

The degree of risk is measured by considering
likelihood and impact. To describe our appetite
for each category of risk, the Executive Team
sets maximum ‘residual risk’ scores based on
the risk categories described above, and theBoard expects that risks at all levels acrossthe organisation will be managed within thesescores. Where a risk exceeds its residual risk
score, remedial action is taken where possible
and cost-effective, to reduce either likelihood
or impact.
The Executive Team has identified a setof corporate risks, linked to our businesspriorities and informed by internal
developments, external influences andlonger-term commitments. These risks, if not48

managed, would compromise our ability toprovide our statutory services or diminish
these services to a degree unacceptable toour users. Each corporate risk is owned by amember of the Executive Team and they are
regularly reviewed by the Executive Team, theBoard, and the Audit and Risk Committee.
Our most significant risks in terms of residual
risk scores are outlined as follows:
Operating during the COVID-19 pandemic:
there is a risk that a) our response to the
COVID-19 pandemic, i.e. the closure to public
and staff of our building and the transition toa largely ‘virtual’ home-working organisation
for an as yet unknown period, and b) the
impact of the virus itself, may impact on ourability to deliver our statutory duties and otherobligations.
As the Coronavirus pandemic situation began
to develop, we decided to create a dedicated
COVID-19 risk register to manage theassociated risks in five categories:■

Statutory■

Finance and commercial■

Audience■

People■Corporate

Overview of controls in place during the year:■

following all Government COVID-19-related
instructions and guidance--------------------

The National Archives■

Major Incident Management Team
meeting regularly to plan and deliver the
closure and re-occupation of our building
and restoration of services within the
restrictions required■

closure of Kew site to staff and public
when required, with minimal essential
ongoing on site presence, enabled byenhancements to our capability to work off
site

■

■

regular communication to staff,
stakeholders (including DCMS) and the
publicidentification of business-critical functions
and their ‘on site’ dependency, withongoing monitoring via the Major IncidentManagement Team of our capacity todeliver in business critical areas.

Staff Leadership and Culture: there is arisk that the prolonged nature of COVID-19
pandemic restrictions have an adverse effecton the personal and professional resilienceof managers and staff, leading to long term
implications, including the physical and mental
health of individuals.

Annual Report and Accounts 2020-21

Failure to aid legal certainty: there is arisk that the ongoing scale of changes to the
expanded statute book, as the UK takes backcontrol of its laws, exceeds the financial and/or resource capacity of our team, leading
to a failure to aid legal certainty and lack ofcompliance by The National Archives.
Overview of controls in place during the year:■

robust governance of legislation services■

strong project management andoperational controls■

measurements of the volume of legislation
changes required■

measurement of the rate of progress
reducing the EU Exit backlog of unappliedamendments■

plans to increase editorial capacity if
required.

Threat to archive services: there is a riskthat financial constraints and the COVID-19
pandemic lead to pressure on archives.
Overview of controls in place during the year:■

securing and allocating ‘Archives at Risk’funding of £500,000 from HM Treasury to
prevent the loss of documentary cultural
heritage■ongoing advocacy and support by The
National Archives to reinforce the role ofPlaces of Deposit and the importance ofretaining records locally■leading a Records at Risk group andworking with an Arts Council England-led
group on records at risk in the cultural
heritage sector■

working with the Business Archives Councilled Crisis Management Team to save andfind a home for business records at risk

Overview of controls in place during the year:■

focus on staff wellbeing through strong
leadership and effective communication■

practical support to staff working fromhome■dedicated online learning, development
and wellbeing programme■

provision of a COVID-19-secure workplace
for staff returning to site■

continued recruitment of new andreplacement posts■

planning for new ways of working as werecover from the pandemic.

49---------------------

The National Archives

Annual Report and Accounts 2020-21

and building relationships with liquidators
to support this work.

■require new or enhanced risk mitigation orcontrol

Other strategic risks considered and mitigatedinclude:■be clearly linked with an organisation orservice priority.

■

Failure to meet the challenges of digital:
there is a risk that we fail to address thechallenges of being a digital archive, forexample, not developing suitably scalable
systems, not growing and developing our
expertise, not moving quickly enough to
respond to technological change.

■

Transition to the 20-year rule: there
is a risk that we fail to provide sufficient
support, resources and/or expertise togovernment departments regarding thetransition to the 20-year rule.

■

Failure to exploit and benefit fromcommercial opportunities: there is a risk
arising from us not currently enjoying thecommercial freedoms of museums andgalleries, together with an organisationallack of a commercial culture and limited
commercial expertise.

Identifying and managing risk is not a barrier
to efficiency, effectiveness, or innovation, andmanaging our corporate risks has a minimal
effect on our activities unless additional
controls need to be introduced. As far as
possible, we incorporate risk mitigations into
our business-as-usual activities, reinforcing
the message that risk management is the
responsibility of all staff.
Risks below corporate level are managed,
reviewed, and updated at least quarterly by
the Executive Directors and their management
teams. A directorate’s risk register captures
what are considered exceptional risks. These
will normally:■

be finite

50

We expect that, over time, most directoraterisks will be managed as ‘business-asusual’, exceptionally, directorate risks may
be escalated to the corporate risk register.
At operational level, risks are managed
on a day-to-day basis. The Executive
Directors receive assurance on operationalrisks through six-monthly accountability
statements from their direct reports. Thesestatements are reviewed by the Directors
and approved by the Chief Executive andKeeper. Any significant governance or
performance issues highlighted are raisedwith the Audit and Risk Committee.
Authors of accountability statements assess
the maturity of risk management in their areasof responsibility and provide evidence for
their assessment. Authors are also required toprovide assurance that their staff comply withkey corporate policies, including the:■fraud policy■

anti-bribery policy■

conflict of interest policy■

routes for confidential reporting(whistleblowing)■

Civil Service Code.

Short- and medium-term additional governancestructures are introduced for high-value
projects and programmes as appropriate.
We are satisfied that we manage and mitigate
risks, and where necessary, that we takeaction to contain the impact of risk. We areconfident that our risk management approachis comprehensive, allowing the Executive Team--------------------

The National Archives

to identify early, and respond to, any possible
threats to the achievement of our objectives.
At a corporate level, our risks are aligned with
our strategic priorities set out in ‘Archives forEveryone’ our business plan for 2019-2023, which
focuses on the organisation’s goals of becoming
the inclusive archive, the entrepreneurial archiveand the disruptive archive.
Health and safety
The Chief Executive and Keeper recognisesthat ensuring the health and safety of staff
and visitors is essential to the success of
The National Archives and is committed toproviding a safe and healthy working andlearning environment.
We monitor accidents and near miss incidents
preventing recurrence and work-related
ill-health. We continue to meet our legal
responsibilities under health and safety
legislation as a minimum, and assess risks toanyone who could be affected by our activities
and put in place measures to control theserisks. We ensure safe working methods andprovide safe work equipment.
We provide information, instruction,
training, and supervision. We consult withstaff, the health and safety committee, andtheir representatives on health, safety, andwelfare matters.
We continue to monitor and review our safety
arrangements and prevention measures toensure they are effective and encourage aculture of continuous improvement.
We ensure that resources are available tosupport workplace health and safety. Healthand safety procedures are in place, andresponsibilities are appropriately assigned
to ensure the aims of our health and safety
policy are met.
17

Annual Report and Accounts 2020-21

In these unprecedented and challenging
times, we responded to the Coronavirus
pandemic by implementing a COVID-19
Secure site based on our risk assessment
process. We continue to follow COVID-19
Government Guidance and the guidance isregularly reviewed and updated for staff,
contractors, and the public, to prevent therisk of spread of Coronavirus. We havecreated a COVID-19 staff hub on our intranet
which contains useful guidance such as social
distancing measures, first aid arrangements,
access to mental health first aiders, homeworking, wellbeing, access to welfare facilities,
hand sanitisation and face coverings.
The Chief Executive and Keeper’s vision is oneof a safe and healthy work environment for all
who visit and work at The National Archives
and is committed to supporting our collective
goals to protect staff at work and ensure
people enjoy our visitor experience safely.
We promote a systematic and organised
method of improving health and safety within
departments and a robust programme ofinspection and audit. Through training andcommunication, we advance the principles andsafe systems of work to facilitate the exchange
of information for staff and mangers working
together with other departments in pursuit ofmutual safety.
Confidential reporting (whistleblowing)17
Staff and contractors have access to our
Confidential Reporting (Whistleblowing) policy.
This provides access to the Chair of the Audit
and Risk Committee, or to the Chief Executive
and Keeper, who support the individual inraising their concerns. Staff and contractors arereminded of the policy during the year, including
how to raise concerns. No concerns were raised
under these policy arrangements in 2020-21.

This is now known as the Civil Service ‘Speak Up’ campaign.
51---------------------

The National Archives

Annual Report and Accounts 2020-21

Information risk
We continue to demonstrate that we are an
exemplar in the field of information risk within
UK Government. There were no personal datarelated incidents reported to the Information
Commissioner’s Office in 2020-21.

52--------------------

The National Archives

Annual Report and Accounts 2020-21

Statement of Accounting Officer’s responsibilities
Under the Government Resources andAccounts Act 2000, HM Treasury has directed
The National Archives to prepare, for eachfinancial year, resource accounts detailingthe resources acquired, held, or disposed ofduring the year and the use of resources by
The National Archives during the year.
The accounts are prepared on an accruals
basis and must give a true and fair view ofthe state of affairs of The National Archives
and of its net resource outturn, application of
resources, changes in taxpayers’ equity andcash flows for the financial year.
In preparing the accounts, the Principal
Accounting Officer complies with therequirements of the Government Financial
Reporting Manual and, in particular, to:■observe the Accounts Direction issued
by HM Treasury, including the relevant
accounting and disclosure requirements,
and apply suitable accounting policies on aconsistent basis■

make judgements and estimates on areasonable basis■

state whether applicable accounting
standards, as set out in the Government
Financial Reporting Manual, have been
followed, and disclose and explain any
material departures in the accounts■

confirm that the annual report andaccounts as a whole are fair, balanced,
and understandable, and personal

responsibility for the annual report andaccounts and the judgements required for
determining that it is fair, balanced andunderstandable■

prepare the accounts on the going concern
basis.

HM Treasury have appointed me as the
Accounting Officer of The National Archives,with responsibility for preparing The National
Archives’ accounts and for transmitting themto the Comptroller and Auditor General.
The responsibilities of an Accounting Officer,
including responsibility for the propriety andregularity of the public finances for which an
Accounting Officer is answerable, for keeping
proper records and for safeguarding thedepartment’s assets, are set out in Managing
Public Money published by HM Treasury.
As the Accounting Officer, I have taken all thesteps that I ought to have taken to make myself
aware of any relevant audit information and toestablish that The National Archives’ auditors
are aware of that information. So far as I amaware, there is no relevant audit information ofwhich the auditors are unaware.

Jeff JamesAccounting Officer
12 July 2021-

53

The National Archives

Annual Report and Accounts 2020-21

2.2 Remuneration and staff report
Senior Civil Service grades
The remuneration of senior civil servants is set
by the Prime Minister following independent
advice from the Review Body on Senior
Salaries. In reaching its recommendations,
the Review Body has regard to the following
considerations:■the need to recruit, retain and motivate
suitably able and qualified people toexercise their different responsibilities■

regional/local variations in labour markets
and their effects on the recruitment andretention of staff■

government policies for improving public
services, including the requirement on
departments to meet the output targets forthe delivery of departmental services■

the funds available to departments as set
out in the Government’s departmental
expenditure limits■

The Government’s inflation target.

The Review Body takes account of theevidence it receives about wider economic
considerations and the affordability of its
recommendations. Further information about
the work of the Review Body can be found on
the Office of Manpower Economics web pages
on GOV.UK.18
Service contracts
Civil Service appointments are madein accordance with the Civil Service
Commissioners’ Recruitment Code. The Coderequires appointments to be made on merit,on the basis of fair and open competition,18

but also includes the circumstances when
appointments may otherwise be made. The
Recruitment Principles published by the Civil
Service Commission specify the circumstances
when appointments may be made otherwise.
Unless otherwise stated below, the officials
covered by this report hold appointments thatare open-ended. Early termination, other thanfor misconduct, would result in the individual
receiving compensation, as set out in the Civil
Service Compensation Scheme.
Jeff James’ appointment as Chief Executive
and Keeper was confirmed by the Ministry ofJustice on 29 July 2014 until 28 July 2018 andwas extended for a further four-year termfrom 29 July 2018 by the Department for
Digital, Culture, Media and Sport.
Lesley Cowley OBE and Dr Claire Feehily wereappointed from 1 January 2016 as Chair of The
National Archives’ Board and Chair of the Audit
and Risk Committee respectively on three-year
contracts. Lesley Cowley’s contract was extended
until 31 December 2021 and Claire Feehily’scontract was extended until 31 May 2021.
Baroness (Ros) Scott of Needham Market
and Mark Richards were appointed as Nonexecutive Board members from 21 May 2018
on a three-year contract, which was extended
until 20 May 2024.
Sonia Cargan was appointed as Non-executive
Board member from 19 January 2021 on athree-year contract.
At the time of writing, Rommel Pereira had
been appointed from 1 May 2021 on a three-www.gov.uk/government/organisations/office-of-manpower-economics.
54--------------------

The National Archives

year contract to succeed Claire Feehily as Chairof the Audit and Risk Committee, following theend of her term.
Service contracts can be terminated under
the standard procedures of the Civil Service
Management Code.
Further information about the work of the Civil
Service Commissioners can be found atwww.civilservicecommission.org
The Nominations and GovernanceCommittee
The policy on remuneration of senior civil
servants, and the deliberations of theNominations and Governance Committee,
adhere to Cabinet Office policy, which follows
the guidance and recommendations of the
Review Body on Senior Salaries.
Salary and bonuses
Salary includes gross salary, overtime,reserved rights to London weighting or
London allowances, recruitment andretention allowances, and any otherallowance to the extent that it is subject to
UK taxation. This report is based on accrued
payments made by the department andthus recorded in these accounts. Percentage
salary increases, and performance bonuses,
are agreed by the Nominations andGovernance Committee in accordance withstrict guidance and parameters set each yearby the Cabinet Office.

Annual Report and Accounts 2020-21

Senior staff have written objectives agreed
with the Chief Executive and Keeper.
Performance against these objectives, andagainst The National Archives’ values, forms
the basis of their formal appraisal andsubsequent pay and bonus recommendations.
This information is used by the Nominationsand Governance Committee to determine
pay awards, according to the Review Body on
Senior Salaries’ annual recommendations.
The monetary value of benefits in kind covers
any benefits provided by the department andtreated by HM Revenue and Customs as ataxable emolument.
Bonuses are based on performance levelattained and are made as part of the appraisal
process. The stated figures disclose both inyear bonuses and end-of-year bonuses that
relate to the preceding year. As such, reported
bonuses in 2020-21 relate to performancein both 2020-21 and 2019-20, with thecomparative bonuses relating to performancein both 2019-20 and 2018-19.
The following sections provide details of the
remuneration and pension interests of themost senior officials (i.e. Board members) of
the department.
The salary, pension entitlements and the valueof any taxable benefits in kind of the Chief
Executive and Keeper, Executive Directors,
Associate Director, Non-executive Directors andNon-executive Board members of The National
Archives, were as follows (audited):19 20

19

Salary and full-year equivalent (FYE) are presented to the nearest £1,000. FYE is shown in brackets. Benefits inkind are presented to the nearest £100, pension benefits and total remuneration to the nearest £1,000.

20

The value of pension benefits accrued during the year is calculated as (the real increase in pension multipliedby 20) less (the contributions made by the individual). The real increases exclude increases due to inflation or
any increase or decreases due to a transfer of pension rights.
55---------------------

The National Archives

Annual Report and Accounts 2020-21

2020-21
Salary and
FYE (full-year,
full-timeequivalent)
£000

Bonus
£000

Benefit in kind£Pensionbenefits
£000

Total
£000

Jeff James
Chief Executive and Keeper

120-1252-

48

170-175

Neil Curtis
Chief Operating Officer

95-100--39

135-140

Paul Davies
Operations Director

90-95

4

-

24

120-125

Lucy Fletcher
Director for Government andInformation Rights

85-90

-

-

34

120-125

Dr Valerie Johnson
Director of Research andCollections

85-90

-

-

34

120-125

Caroline Ottaway-Searle
Director of Public Engagement

90-95

4

-

36

130-135

Emmajane Avery
Director of Public Engagement(from 1 March 2021)

5-10(85-90)---24-15--20(60-65)

John Sheridan
Digital Director

85-90

10

-

40

135-140

Lesley Cowley OBE
Chair of The National Archives’
Board

15-20

N/A

-

N/A

15-20

Sonia Cargan
Non-executive Board member(from 19 January 2021)

0-5(10-15)

N/A

-

N/A

0-5
(10-15)Dr Claire Feehily
Non-executive Board member

15-20

N/A

-

N/A

15-20

Robert Milburn
Independent member of the Audit
and Risk Committee

0-5

N/A

-

N/A

0-5

Mark Richards
Non-executive Board member

10-15

N/A

-

N/A

10-15

Baroness (Ros) Scott of Needham
MarketNon-executive Board member

10-15

N/A

-

N/A

10-15

56

--------------------

The National Archives

Annual Report and Accounts 2020-21

2019-20
Salary and
FYE (full-year,
full-timeequivalent)
£000

Bonus
£000

Benefit in kind£Pensionbenefits
£000

Total
£000

Jeff James
Chief Executive and Keeper

120-125--48

170-175

Neil Curtis
Finance and Commercial Director

95-10010-38145-150

Paul Davies
Operations Director

85-90

-

-

28

115-120

Lucy Fletcher
Director for Government andInformation Rights

80-85

-

-

32

110-115

Dr Valerie Johnson
Director of Research andCollections

85-90

-

-

33

120-125

Caroline Ottaway-Searle
Director of Public Engagement

90-95

-

-

35

125-130

Emmajane Avery
Director of Public Engagement(from 1 March 2021)

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

John Sheridan
Digital Director

85-90

-

-

35

120-125

Lesley Cowley OBE
Chair of The National Archives’
Board

15-20

N/A

1,700

N/A

15-20

Sonia Cargan
Non-executive Board member(from 19 January 2021)

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

Dr Claire Feehily
Non-executive Board member

10-15

N/A

2,800

N/A

15-20

Robert Milburn
Independent member of the Audit
and Risk Committee

0-5

N/A

-

N/A

0-5

Mark Richards
Non-executive Board member

10-15

N/A

500

N/A

10-15

Baroness (Ros) Scott of Needham
MarketNon-executive Board member

10-15

N/A

300

N/A

10-15

2020-212019-20

Band of highest paid Director’s remuneration (£)

120-125120-125

Median total remuneration (£)

33,12731,141

Ratio

3.7

3.9

Pay multiples (audited)

Reporting bodies are required to disclose therelationship between the remuneration of
the highest-paid director in their organisationand the median remuneration of theorganisation’s workforce.

The banded remuneration of the highest-paid
Executive Director at The National Archives
in the financial year 2020-21 was £120£125,000 (2019-20: £120-£125,000). This was
3.7 times the median remuneration of the57---------------------

The National Archives

Annual Report and Accounts 2020-21

workforce, which was £33,127. The increasein the median from the previous year isdue primarily to a 2.5 per cent average pay
increase received by staff and 1 per cent for
Senior Civil Service staff from April 2020.

from £16,000-£125,000 (2019-20: £16,000£125,000).
Total remuneration includes salary, nonconsolidated performance-related pay andbenefits in kind (travel and subsistence).
It does not include severance payments,
employer pension contributions and the cash
equivalent transfer of pensions.

In both 2020-21 and 2019-20, no employees
received remuneration in excess of thehighest-paid director. Remuneration ranged
Pension benefits (audited)
Accruedpension at
pension age
as at 31/03/21
and related
lump sumReal increasein pension
and related
lump sum atpension age

CETV21 at
31/03/21

CETV at31/03/20

Real increasein CETV£000 in bandsof £5,000£000 in bandsof £2,500£000 tonearest £000

£000 tonearest £000

£000 tonearest £000

Jeff James
Chief Executive and Keeper

15-20

2.5-5

251

207

28

Neil Curtis
Finance and Commercial
Director

10-15

0–2.5

115

86

19

Paul Davies
Operations Director

25-30

0-2.5

610

562

25

Lucy Fletcher
Director for Government andInformation Rights

10-15

0–2.5

106

85

11

Dr Valerie Johnson
Director of Research andCollections

25-30

0-2.5

415

373

22

Caroline Ottaway-Searle
Director of Public Engagement

25-30

0-2.5

471

419

28

Emmajane Avery, Director of
Public Engagement (from 1
March 2021)

20-25

0

348

358

-19

John Sheridan
Digital Director

25-30

0-2.5

376

338

21

There were no employer contributions topartnership pension accounts in respect of anyof the above.
Civil Service pensions
Pension benefits are provided through the
Civil Service pension arrangements. From 1
April 2015, a new pension scheme for civil
servants was introduced – the Civil Servants
21

and Others Pension Scheme or alpha, which
provides benefits on a career average basiswith a normal pension age equal to themember’s State Pension Age (or 65 if higher).
From that date, all newly appointed civil
servants and the majority of those already inservice joined alpha. Prior to that date, civil
servants participated in the Principal Civil

Cash Equivalent Transfer Values
58--------------------

The National Archives

Service Pension Scheme (PCSPS). The PCSPS
has four sections: three providing benefits ona final salary basis (classic, premium or classicplus) with a normal pension age of 60; andone providing benefits on a whole career basis(nuvos) with a normal pension age of 65.
These statutory arrangements are unfundedwith the cost of benefits met by monies voted
by Parliament each year. Pensions payable
under classic, premium, classic plus, nuvos
and alpha are increased annually in linewith Pensions Increase legislation. Existing
members of the PCSPS who were within 10
years of their normal pension age on 1 April
2012, remained in the PCSPS after 1 April 2015.
Those who were between 10 years and 13
years and 5 months from their normal pension
age on 1 April 2012 will switch into alphasometime between 1 June 2015 and 1 February
2022. All members who switch to alpha havetheir PCSPS benefits ‘banked’, with thosewith earlier benefits in one of the final salarysections of the PCSPS having those benefits
based on their final salary when they leavealpha (the pension figures quoted for officials
show pension earned in PCSPS or alpha – asappropriate. Where the official has benefits inboth the PCSPS and alpha, the figure quoted isthe combined value of their benefits in the two
schemes). Members joining from October 2002
may opt for either the appropriate defined
benefit arrangement or a ‘money purchase’
stakeholder pension with an employer
contribution (partnership pension account).
Employee contributions are salary-related andrange between 4.6 per cent and 8.05 per centfor members of classic, premium, classic plus,
nuvos and alpha. Benefits in classic accrue atthe rate of 1/80th of final pensionable earnings
for each year of service. In addition, a lumpsum equivalent to three years’ initial pension ispayable on retirement. For premium, benefits

Annual Report and Accounts 2020-21

accrue at the rate of 1/60th of final pensionableearnings for each year of service. Unlike classic,
there is no automatic lump sum. Classic plus
is essentially a hybrid with benefits for service
before 1 October 2002 calculated broadly
as per classic and benefits for service from
October 2002 worked out as in premium. In
nuvos, a member builds up a pension based on
their pensionable earnings during their periodof scheme membership. At the end of thescheme year (31 March), the member’s earned
pension account is credited with 2.3 per centof their pensionable earnings in that scheme
year and the accrued pension is uprated in linewith Pensions Increase legislation. Benefits inalpha build up in a similar way to nuvos, exceptthat the accrual rate in 2.32 per cent. In allcases, members may opt to give up (commute)pension for a lump sum up to the limits set by
the Finance Act 2004.
The partnership pension account is a
stakeholder pension arrangement. The
employer makes a basic contribution of
between 8 per cent and 14.75 per cent(depending on the age of the member) intoa stakeholder pension product chosen by
the employee from the appointed provider– Legal & General. The employee does nothave to contribute, but where they do makecontributions, the employer will match these up
to a limit of 3 per cent of pensionable salary (inaddition to the employer’s basic contribution).
Employers also contribute a further 0.5 percent of pensionable salary to cover the cost ofcentrally-provided risk benefit cover (death inservice and ill health retirement).
The accrued pension quoted is the pension themember is entitled to receive when they reachpension age, or immediately on ceasing to be
an active member of the scheme if they are
already at or over pension age. Pension age is
60 for members of classic, premium and classic
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The National Archives

plus, 65 for members of nuvos, and the higherof 65 or State Pension Age for members ofalpha. (The pension figures quoted for officials
show pension earned in PCSPS or alpha – asappropriate. Where the official has benefits inboth the PCSPS and alpha, the figure quoted isthe combined value of their benefits in the two
schemes. Note that part of that pension may
be payable from different ages).
Further details about the Civil Service pension
arrangements can be found at the website:www.civilservicepensionscheme.org.uk
Cash Equivalent Transfer Values
A Cash Equivalent Transfer Value (CETV) isthe actuarially assessed capitalised value ofthe pension scheme benefits accrued by amember at a particular point in time. The
benefits valued are the member’s accrued
benefits and any contingent spouse’s
pension payable from the scheme. A CETV
is a payment made by a pension scheme orarrangement to secure pension benefits inanother pension scheme or arrangement
when the member leaves a scheme andchooses to transfer the benefits accrued intheir former scheme. The pension figures
shown relate to the benefits that theindividual has accrued as a consequenceof their total membership of the pension
scheme, not just their service in a seniorcapacity to which disclosure applies.
The figures include the value of any pension
benefit in another scheme or arrangement
which the member has transferred to
the Civil Service pension arrangements.
They also include any additional pension
benefit accrued to the member as a resultof their buying additional pension benefits
at their own cost. CETVs are worked out inaccordance with The Occupational Pension
Schemes (Transfer Values) (Amendment)
Regulations 2008 and do not take account of60

Annual Report and Accounts 2020-21

any actual or potential reduction to benefits
resulting from Lifetime Allowance Tax which
may be due when pension benefits are taken.
Real increase in CETVThis reflects the increase in CETV that is fundedby the employer. It does not include theincrease in accrued pension due to inflation,
contributions paid by the employee (including
the value of any benefits transferred fromanother pension scheme or arrangement) anduses common market valuation factors for thestart and end of the period.
Staff report
For the eleventh year, we participated in
the Civil Service staff engagement survey,
achieving an overall engagement score of 75
per cent (2019-20: 71 per cent) and retaining
our status as a Civil Service ‘high performer’.
We are committed to training and developing
our staff. We continue to run a comprehensive
programme of learning and development,
including our Corporate Management
Development Programme, which aims to equipline managers with the skills needed to leadand develop staff, our Career Management
Programme is available to all staff, and
our Stepping Up – Exploring Your Potential
programme for aspiring managers. This year,
due to the pandemic, we have successfully
converted all of our classroom-based training
to online delivery.
Our senior managers meet regularly with staff
and trade union representatives in a numberof ways, including the Whitley Council, Healthand Safety Committee, and the Equality,
Diversity and Inclusion and Staff forums.
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic all
recruitment was successfully conducted
online. Recruitment levels have matchedthose we would usually expect, with--------------------

The National Archives

Annual Report and Accounts 2020-21

successful campaigns across all areas of thebusiness and at all levels, including a role on
our executive team.
Equality and diversity
We are committed to equal opportunities
for all. Policies are in place to guard against
discrimination and to ensure that there are
no unfair or illegal barriers to employment
or advancement within our organisation.
Suitability for employment is based on skills,
qualifications, and experience irrespective ofrace, age, gender, marital status, disability,
sexual orientation, religious or political beliefs
or opinions. In 2020, a Racial Equality Network
was set up by employees for those staff who
self-identify as a person of colour.
We have launched ‘Becoming the Inclusive
Archive’ in which we set out our commitment
to harnessing talent from diverse

backgrounds. We carry out ‘anonymised
shortlisting’ for all of our recruitment
campaigns, reducing the risk of unconscious
bias in the selection process to ensure a fairand consistent approach to recruitment.
We have appointed a Non-executive Board
member with a deep expertise in the field of
Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion to provide
expertise and oversight at a corporate level.
In addition, we are developing a workforce
Equality, Diversity and Inclusion action plan
which sets out specific actions that will enable
us to achieve the aspirations articulated in‘Becoming the Inclusive Archive’.
We are a Disability Confident Level 2 employer,
and we aim to make sure that there is nodiscrimination on the grounds of disability.
We continue to encourage and support our
staff and invest in their wellbeing.

Workforce breakdown
31 March 2021

31 March 2020

Staff numbers

Headcount

545

527

Workforce diversity

Black and Minority
Ethnic22

19.0%

19.9%

Women – director
level

4 of 83 of 7

Women

53.6%

53.8%

Disabled23

9.0%

8.8%

Temporaryappointments24

17

17

7.0%

14.7%

Staff Turnover
22

Percentage of employees declaring an ethnicity.

23

Percentage of employees declaring a disability.

24

Temporary appointments are employees appointed under Exception 1 of the Civil Service Recruitment Principles.
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Sickness

Days per FTE

3.7

6.1

Civil service staff
engagement survey

Engagement score %7571Consultancy
expenditure

£000s

6

9

Average full-time equivalent number of persons employed (audited)
The average number of full-time equivalent persons employed during the year was as follows:

2020-212019-20

Permanently
employed staff

Other staff25

Total

Total

Government
information
management

120

4

124

116

Preservationand protection

101

0

101

86

Public access

279

0

279

296

Staff engaged
on capitalprojects

3

-

3

-

Total

503

4

507

498

25

‘Other staff’ includes staff on fixed-term contracts as well as agency staff and any specialist contractor.
62--------------------

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Annual Report and Accounts 2020-21

Senior Civil Service (SCS) by band as at 31 March:
2020-212019-20

NumberNumber£60,000 - £70,000--£70,000 - £80,000--£80,000 - £90,000

44£90,000 - £100,000

32£100,000 - £110,000--£110,000 - £120,000--£120,000 - £130,000

1

1

Total

8

7

Salary band

Staff costs (audited)2020-21£000

2019-20£000

Permanently
employed staff

Other staff

Total

Total

Wages andsalaries

19,061

153

19,214

17,956Social security
costs26

1,993

-

1,993

1,868

Other pension
costs

4,801

-

4,801

4,620

Sub total

25,855153

26,00824,444

Less recoveries
in respectof outward
secondments

(79)

-

(79)

34

Total net costs

25,776

153

25,92924,47826

2020-21 includes £78,000 (2019-20: £67,000) apprenticeship levy cost. The Apprenticeship Levy was
introduced in April 2017, requiring employers with a pay bill of more than £3 million each year to pay the levy.
63---------------------

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Annual Report and Accounts 2020-21

Off-payroll engagements
Review of tax arrangements of public
sector appointees
Table 1: Temporary off-payroll worker
engagements as at 31 March 2021:
Number of existing engagements
as of 31 March 2021

5

Of which:
Number that have existed for lessthan one year at time of reporting5

Number that have existed for
between one and two years at timeof reporting0

Number that have existed for
between two and three years attime of reporting0

Number that have existed for
between three and four years attime of reporting0

Number that have existed for fouror more years at time of reporting

0

Table 2: All temporary off-payroll workers
engaged at any point during the year ended 31
March 2021:
Number of off-payroll workers
engaged during the year ended 31
March 2021

7

Of which:
Numbers determined as in-scope ofIR350

Numbers determined as out-ofscope of IR35

764

Number of engagements
reassessed for compliance orassurance purposes during the year0

Of which: Number of engagementsthat saw a change to IR35 status
following the consistency review

0

Number of engagements where thestatus was disputed under provisions
in the off-payroll legislation0

Of which: Number of engagementsthat saw a change to IR35 status
following the review

0

Table 3: For any off-payroll engagements ofBoard members, and/or senior officials withsignificant financial responsibility, between 1
April 2020 and 31 March 2021:
Number of off-payroll engagementsof Board members, and/or senior
officials with significant financial
responsibility, during the financial
year

0

Total number of individuals bothon payroll and off-payroll that havebeen deemed ‘board members,
and/or senior officials withsignificant financial responsibility’,during the financial year

12

Staff pension arrangements
The Principal Civil Service Pension Scheme(PCSPS) is an unfunded multi-employer
defined benefit scheme in which The National
Archives is unable to identify its share of theunderlying assets and liabilities. A full actuarial
valuation was carried out as at 31 March 2016.
Details can be found in the resource accountsof the Cabinet Office: Civil Superannuation atwww.civilservicepensionscheme.org.uk/aboutus/resource-accounts--------------------

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Annual Report and Accounts 2020-21

For 2020-21, employers’ contributionsof £4.7 million were payable in Accruing
Superannuation Liability Charges (201920: £4.6 million) at one of four rates in therange 26.6 to 30.3 per cent (unchanged from2019-20) of pensionable earnings, based onsalary bands. The Scheme Actuary reviews
employer contributions usually every four
years following a full scheme valuation. The
contribution rates reflect benefits as they
are accrued, not when the costs are actually
incurred, and reflect past experience of thescheme.

Employers also match employee contributions
up to 3 per cent of pensionable pay.
In addition, employer contributions of£0.003 million (2019-20: £0.002 million) of
pensionable pay, were payable to the PCSPS tocover the cost of the future provision of lumpsum benefits on death in service or ill healthretirement of these employees.

Employees can opt to open a partnership
pension account, a stakeholder pension
with an employer contribution. Employers’
contributions of £0.09 million (2019-20: £0.07
million were paid to the appointed stakeholder
pension provider, Legal & General. Employer
contributions are age-related and range from 8
to 14.75 per cent of pensionable pay.

Reporting of Civil Service and othercompensation schemes – exit packages(audited)
Details of the compensation scheme
payments, and the number of departuresduring the year, and the previous year, areshown in the table below. Compensationagreed for departures did not exceed the
Cabinet Office’s recommended cap of £95,000.

Contributions due to the partnership pension
provider at the balance sheet date were £0.007
million (2019-20: £0.006 million). Contributions
prepaid at that date were nil (2019-20: nil).

2020-21
Exit package
cost band£000

2019-20

Compulsory
redundancies

Otherdepartures

Total

Compulsory
redundancies

Otherdepartures

Total

< £10

-

-

-

-

1

1

£10 - £25

-

-

-

-

-

-

£25 - £50

-

1

1

-

-

-

£50 - £100

-

-

-

-

-

-

Total numberof exitpackages

-

1

1

-

1

1

Total costs(£000)

£-

£28

£28

£-

£10

£10

Redundancy and other departure costs
have been paid in accordance with theprovisions of the Civil Service Compensation
Scheme; a statutory scheme made under
the Superannuation Act 1972. Exit costs areaccounted for in full in the year of departure.

Where the department has agreed early
retirements, the additional costs are met by
the department and not by the Civil Service
pension scheme. Ill health retirement costs
are met by the pension scheme and are notincluded in the table.
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Annual Report and Accounts 2020-21

The Trade Union (Facility Time Publication Requirements) Regulations
2017 (Statutory Instrument 328) report
Relevant union officials
Number of employees who were relevant
union officials during the relevant period

Full-time equivalent employee number

16

15.1

Percentage of time spent on facility time
Percentage of time

Number of employees

0%

12

1-50%

4

51%-99%

-

100%

-

Percentage of pay bill spent on facility time
Total cost of facility time

£6,154

Total pay bill

£25,929,214

Percentage of the total pay bill spend on
facility time

0.02%

Paid trade union activities
Time spent on paid trade union activities
as a percentage of total paid facility time

660%--------------------

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Annual Report and Accounts 2020-21

2.3 Parliamentary accountability and audit reportStatement of Outturn against Parliamentary Supply (SoPS)
In addition to the primary statements
prepared under the International Financial
Reporting Standards (IFRS), the Government
Financial Reporting Manual (FReM) requires
The National Archives to prepare a Statementof Outturn against Parliamentary Supply (SoPS)
and supporting notes.
The SoPS and related notes are subject toaudit, as detailed in the Certificate and Reportof the Comptroller and Auditor General to theHouse of Commons.
The SoPS is a key accountability statementthat shows, in detail, how an entity has spent
against their Supply Estimate. Supply is themonetary provision (for resource and capital
purposes) and cash (drawn primarily fromthe Consolidated Fund), that Parliament gives
statutory authority for entities to utilise. The
Estimate details supply and is voted on by
Parliament at the start of the financial year.
Should an entity exceed the limits set by theirSupply Estimate, called control limits, theiraccounts will receive a qualified opinion.
The format of the SoPS mirrors the Supply
Estimates, published on GOV.UK, to enable
comparability between what Parliament
approves and the final outturn.

The SoPS contain a summary table, detailingperformance against the control limits that
Parliament have voted on, cash spent (budgets
are compiled on an accruals basis and outturn
will not precisely reconcile to cash spend) andadministration.
The supporting notes detail the following:
Outturn by Estimate line, providing a moredetailed breakdown (note 1); a reconciliationof outturn to net operating expenditure in
the SOCNE, to tie the SoPS to the financial
statements (note 2); and a reconciliation ofoutturn to net cash requirement (note 3).
The SoPS and Estimates are compiled against
the budgeting framework, which is similar to
the IFRS. Further information on the Public
Spending Framework and the reasons whybudgeting rules are different to IFRS can also
be found in chapter 1 of the Consolidated
Budgeting Guidance, available on GOV.UK.
The SoPS provides a detailed view of financial
performance, in a form that is voted on
and recognised by Parliament. The financial
review, in the Performance Report, provides
a summarised discussion of outturn against
estimate as an introduction to the SoPS
disclosures.

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Annual Report and Accounts 2020-21

Summary table, 2020-21, all figures presented in £000s
Outturn
Type of
Spend

Estimate

SoPS note
Voted

Non-Voted

Total

Voted

Non-Voted

Total

Voted
outturn vs
Estimate,
Savings/(Excess)

Prior Year
OutturnTotal
2019-20

Departmental Expenditure
Limit
Resource

1.1

36,498-36,49838,385-38,385

1,887

35,997

Capital

1.2

3,524

-

3,524

3,760

-

3,760

236

2,836

40,022-40,022

42,145-42,145

2,123

38,833

-

-

-

7

-

7

7

(10)

-

-

-

7

-

7

7

(10)

Total
Annually Managed
Expenditure
Resource

1.1

Total
Total Budget
Resource

1.1

36,498-36,49838,392-38,392

1,894

35,987

Capital

1.2

3,524

-

3,524

3,760

-

3,760

236

2,836

Total Expenditure

40,022-40,02242,152-42,1522,130

38,823Figures in the Estimate column cover the voted control limits voted by Parliament. Refer to the Supply
Estimates guidance manual, available on GOV.UK, for detail on the control limits voted by Parliament.

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Annual Report and Accounts 2020-21

Net Cash Requirement 2020-21 – all figures presented in £000s

Item

SoPS note

Outturn

Estimate

Outturn vs
Estimate,
Saving/(Excess)

Net Cashrequirement

335,77335,900127

32,817

Prior Year
OutturnTotal
2019-20
9,423

Prior Year
OutturnTotal
2019-20

Administration costs 2020-21 – all figures presented in £000s

Item

SoPS note

Outturn

Estimate

Outturn vs
Estimate,
Saving/(Excess)

Administrative
costs

1.1

9,225

10,220995

Although not a separate voted limit, any breach of the administration budget will also result inan excess vote.

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Annual Report and Accounts 2020-21

Notes to the Statement of Outturn against Parliamentary Supply, 2020-21
SoPS1. Outturn detail by Estimate Line
SoPS1.1 Analysis of Net Resource Outturn by Estimate line - all figures presented in £000s
Resource outturn
Spend type
(Resource)

Administration
Gross

IncomeEstimate

Total

Total

Outturn vs
Estimate,
Saving/(Excess)

27,27336,49838,385

1,887

35,997

Programme
Net

Gross

IncomeNet

38,194(10,921)

Prior Year
OutturnTotal
2019-20

Spending in Departmental Expenditure Limits
Voted
expenditure

9,285

(60)

9,225

Spending in Annually Managed Expenditure
Voted
expenditure

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

7

7

(10)

Total
resource

9,285

(60)

9,225

38,194(10,921)

27,27336,49838,392

1,894

35,987The Outturn was affected by lower staff
recruitment than originally planned becauseof the challenges arising from the COVID-19
pandemic. Depreciation was £1.1 million lower
than estimated. This is because the amountcharged was calculated using the prior year
valuation whereas the estimated charge wasbased on the projected valuation. The remaining
variance of £1 million is explained mainly by the
reduction in staff recruitment.

SoPS1.2 Analysis of Capital Outturn: all figures presented in £000s
Outturn

Estimate

Income

Total

Total

Outturn vs
Estimate,
Saving/(Excess)

Spend type
Gross

Prior Year
OutturnTotal
2019-20

Spending in Departmental Expenditure Limit (DEL)
Voted expenditure

3,547

(23)

3,524

3,760

236

2,836

Total Capital

3,547

(23)

3,524

3,760

236

2,836

No virements have been made by The National
Archives. Virements are the reallocation ofprovisions in the Estimates that do not require
Parliamentary authority (because Parliament
does not vote to that level of detail and delegatesto HM Treasury). Further information on

70

virements is provided in the Supply Estimates
Manual which is available on https://www.gov.
uk/government/publications/supply-estimatesguidance-manual.

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Annual Report and Accounts 2020-21

SoPS2. Reconciliation of Outturn to Net Operating Expenditure: all figures presented in £000s
Item

Reference

Outturn total

Prior Year Outturn Total;
2019-20

SoPS1.1

36,49835,987(3)(2)

36,49535,985

Total Resource outturn

Depreciation charged to Other Comprehensive Net Expenditure
Net Operating Expenditurein Consolidated Statementof Comprehensive Net
Expenditure

SOCNE

As noted in the introduction to the SoPS above,
the Outturn and the Estimate are compiled
against the budgeting framework, which issimilar to the IFRS. Accordingly, the above table
reconciles the Total Resource Outturn to Net
Operating Expenditure, linking the SoPS to thefinancial statements.
The reconciling items in both 2019-20 and 202021 relate to depreciation on donated assets,charged directly to Other Comprehensive Net
Expenditure.

SoPS3. Reconciliation of net resource outturn to net cash requirement – all figures
presented in £000s
Item

SoPS note

Outturn total

Estimate

Outturn vs Estimate,
Saving/(Excess)Total Resource
outturn

SoPS 1.1

36,49838,392

1,894

Total Capital outturn

SoPS 1.2

3,524

3,760

236

Depreciation(6,053)(7,207)(1,154)

Adjustment to previous provisions

(16)

-

16

Loss on disposal of assets

(10)

-

10

Other non-cash items

(75)

-

75

Increase/(decrease) in inventories

20

-

(20)

Increase/(decrease) in receivables

682

-

(682)

Increase/(decrease) in contract assets

(95)

-

95

(Increase)/decrease in payables

1,101

955

(146)

(Increase)/decrease in contract liabilities

178

-

(178)

Use of provisions

19

-

(19)

35,77335,900127

Adjustments to remove non-cash items:

Adjustments to reflect movements in working balances:

Net cash requirement

As noted in the introduction to the SoPS above,
the Outturn and the Estimate are compiled
against the budgeting framework, not on a

cash basis. Therefore, this table reconciles the
Total Resource and Capital Outturn to the Net
Cash Requirement.

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Annual Report and Accounts 2020-21

Parliamentary Accountability Disclosures (audited)
Losses and special payments
There were no losses or special payments on
an individual or cumulative basis that require
disclosure because of their size or natureduring 2020-21 (2019-20: nil).
Remote contingent liabilities
In addition to contingent liabilities within themeaning of IAS 37, The National Archives also
reports liabilities for which the likelihood ofa transfer of economic benefit in settlement
is too remote to meet the definition of-72

contingent liability. In the year 2020-21, there
were no remote contingent liabilities to report(2019-20: nil).

Jeff James,
Accounting Officer,
12 July 2021

The National Archives

Annual Report and Accounts 2020-21

The Certificate and Report of The Comptroller and Auditor General to
The House Of Commons
Opinion on financial statements
I certify that I have audited the financial
statements of The National Archives forthe year ended 31 March 2021 under theGovernment Resources and Accounts Act 2000.
The financial statements comprise: Statementof Comprehensive Net Expenditure, Financial
Position, Cash Flows, Changes in Taxpayers’
Equity; and the related notes, including thesignificant accounting policies. These financial
statements have been prepared under theaccounting policies set out within them. The
financial reporting framework that has been
applied in their preparation is applicable law
and International Accounting Standards asinterpreted by HM Treasury’s Government
Financial Reporting Manual.
I have also audited the Statement of
Parliamentary Supply and the related notes,
and the information in the Accountability
Report that is described in that report as
having been audited.
In my opinion, the financial statements:■

give a true and fair view of the state of the
Department’s affairs as at 31 March 2021
and of the Department’s net operating
expenditure for the year then ended■

have been properly prepared in accordancewith the Government Resources andAccounts Act 2000 and HM Treasury
directions issued thereunder.

Opinion on regularity
In my opinion, in all material respects:■

the Statement of Parliamentary Supply
properly presents the outturn against
voted Parliamentary control totals for theyear ended 31 March 2021 and shows thatthose totals have not been exceeded■

the income and expenditure recorded in
the financial statements have been applied
to the purposes intended by Parliament
and the financial transactions recorded in
the financial statements conform to theauthorities which govern them.

Basis for opinions
I conducted my audit in accordance with
International Standards on Auditing (ISAs) (UK),applicable law and Practice Note 10 ‘Audit ofFinancial Statements of Public Sector Entities in
the United Kingdom’. My responsibilities underthose standards are further described in the
Auditor’s responsibilities for the audit of thefinancial statements section of my certificate.
Those standards require me and my staff tocomply with the Financial Reporting Council’s
Revised Ethical Standard 2019. I have also
elected to apply the ethical standards relevant
to listed entities. I am independent of The
National Archives in accordance with the ethicalrequirements that are relevant to my audit of
the financial statements in the UK. My staff andI have fulfilled our other ethical responsibilities
in accordance with these requirements.
I believe that the audit evidence I haveobtained is sufficient and appropriate toprovide a basis for my opinion.
Conclusions relating to going concern
In auditing the financial statements, I haveconcluded that The National Archives’ use of thegoing concern basis of accounting in the preparationof the financial statements is appropriate.
Based on the work I have performed, I havenot identified any material uncertainties
relating to events or conditions that,73---------------------

The National Archives

Annual Report and Accounts 2020-21

individually or collectively, may cast significant
doubt on The National Archives’ ability tocontinue as a going concern for a period ofat least 12 months from when the financial
statements are authorised for issue.

work I have performed, I conclude that there
is a material misstatement of this otherinformation, I am required to report that fact.

My responsibilities and the responsibilities of
the Accounting Officer with respect to going
concern are described in the relevant sectionsof this certificate.

Opinion on other matters
In my opinion, based on the work undertakenin the course of the audit:

The going concern basis of accounting for The
National Archives is adopted in considerationof the requirements set out in HM Treasury’s
Government Reporting Manual, which require
entities to adopt the going concern basis ofaccounting in the preparation of the financial
statements where it anticipated that the services
which they provide will continue into the future.
Other Information
The other information comprises information
included in the annual report, but does
not include the parts of the Accountability
Report described in that report as having
been audited, the financial statements
and my auditor’s report thereon. The
Accounting Officer is responsible for theother information. My opinion on thefinancial statements does not cover the otherinformation and except to the extent otherwise
explicitly stated in my report, I do not express
any form of assurance conclusion thereon.
In connection with my audit of the financial
statements, my responsibility is to read theother information and, in doing so, consider
whether the other information is materiallyinconsistent with the financial statementsor my knowledge obtained in the audit orotherwise appears to be materially misstated.
If I identify such material inconsistencies
or apparent material misstatements, I am
required to determine whether this gives rise
to a material misstatement in the financial
statements themselves. If, based on the74

I have nothing to report in this regard.

■

the parts of the Accountability Report tobe audited have been properly preparedin accordance with HM Treasury directions
made under the Government Resourcesand Accounts Act 2000■

the information given in the Performance andAccountability Reports for the financial year forwhich the financial statements are prepared isconsistent with the financial statements.

Matters on which I report by exception
In the light of the knowledge andunderstanding of The National Archives
and its environment obtained in the courseof the audit, I have not identified material
misstatements in the Performance andAccountability Reports. I have nothing toreport in respect of the following matterswhich I report to you if, in my opinion:■adequate accounting records have notbeen kept or returns adequate for my audit
have not been received from branches not
visited by my staff; or■the financial statements and the parts of
the Accountability Report to be audited
are not in agreement with the accounting
records and returns; or■certain disclosures of remuneration
specified by HM Treasury’s Government
Financial Report Manual are not made; or■I have not received all of the informationand explanations I require for my audit; or--------------------

The National Archives■

the Governance Statement does not reflect
compliance with HM Treasury’s guidance.

Responsibilities of the Accounting Officer
for the financial statements
As explained more fully in the Statementof Accounting Officer’s Responsibilities, the
Accounting Officer is responsible for:■■■the preparation of the financial statementsin accordance with the applicable financial
reporting framework and for being
satisfied that they give a true and fair view

Annual Report and Accounts 2020-21

reasonably be expected to influence theeconomic decisions of users taken on the basisof these financial statements.
I design procedures in line with myresponsibilities, outlined above, to detect material
misstatements in respect of non-compliance withlaws and regulation, including fraud.
My procedures included the following:■internal controls as the Accounting Officer
determines is necessary to enable thepreparation of financial statement to be
free from material misstatement, whether
due to fraud of error
assessing The National Archives’ ability tocontinue as a going concern, disclosing,as applicable, matters related to going
concern and using the going concern basisof accounting unless the Accounting Officer
anticipates that the services provided by
The National Archives will not continue tobe provided in the future.

Auditor’s responsibilities for the audit of
the financial statements
My responsibility is to audit, certify and report on
the financial statements in accordance with theGovernment Resources and Accounts Act 2000.
My objectives are to obtain reasonableassurance about whether the financial
statements as a whole are free from material
misstatement, whether due to fraud or error,
and to issue a certificate that includes myopinion. Reasonable assurance is a high levelof assurance but is not a guarantee that anaudit conducted in accordance with ISAs (UK)will always detect a material misstatement
when it exists. Misstatements can arise fromfraud or error and are considered material
if, individually or in the aggregate, they could

Inquiring of management, internal audit andthose charged with governance, including
obtaining and reviewing supporting
documentation relating to The National
Archives’ policies and procedures relating to:◦

identifying, evaluating and complying
with laws and regulations and whether
they were aware of any instances of
non-compliance◦detecting and responding to therisks of fraud and whether they haveknowledge of any actual, suspected or
alleged fraud◦

the internal controls established tomitigate risks related to fraud or noncompliance with laws and regulations,
including The National Archives’controls relating to the Government
Resources and Accounts Act 2000 andManaging Public Money.

■

discussing among the engagement teamand involving relevant internal and external
specialists, including on the valuation ofproperty regarding how and where fraud
might occur in the financial statements andany potential indicators of fraud. As part ofthis discussion, I identified potential for fraudin the following areas: revenue recognitionand posting of unusual journals■

obtaining an understanding of The National
Archives’ framework of authority as wellas other legal and regulatory frameworks
75---------------------

The National Archives

that The National Archives operates in,focusing on those laws and regulations
that had a direct effect on the financial
statements or that had a fundamental
effect on the operations of The National
Archives. The key laws and regulations I
considered in this context included theGovernment Resources and Accounts Act
2000, Managing Public Money and relevant
employment law and taxation legislation.
In addition to the above, my procedures
to respond to identified risks included thefollowing:■

reviewing the financial statement disclosuresand testing to supporting documentation toassess compliance with relevant laws andregulations discussed above■

enquiring of management and the Audit
Committee concerning actual and potential
litigation and claims■

reading minutes of meetings of thosecharged with governance and the Board■in addressing the risk of fraud throughmanagement override of controls, testing
the appropriateness of journal entries andother adjustments; assessing whether thejudgements made in making accounting
estimates are indicative of a potential bias;
and evaluating the business rationale of any
significant transactions that are unusual oroutside the normal course of business■in addressing the risk of fraud in revenue
recognition, assessing the accuracy oflicensing income against royalty statementsfrom third parties.

I also communicated relevant identified laws
and regulations and potential fraud risks to all
engagement team members including internal
specialists and significant component audit
teams and remained alert to any indications
76

Annual Report and Accounts 2020-21

of fraud or non-compliance with laws andregulations throughout the audit.
A further description of my responsibilities forthe audit of the financial statements is locatedon the Financial Reporting Council’s website at:www.frc.org.uk/auditorsresponsibilities. This
description forms part of my certificate.
I am required to obtain evidence sufficient togive reasonable assurance that the Statementof Parliamentary Supply properly presents theoutturn against voted Parliamentary control totals
and that those totals have not been exceeded.
The voted Parliamentary control totals are
Departmental Expenditure Limits (Resource andCapital), Annually Managed Expenditure (Resource
and Capital), Non-Budget (Resource) and Net
Cash Requirement. I am also required to obtainevidence sufficient to give reasonable assurance
that the expenditure and income recorded in thefinancial statements have been applied to the
purposes intended by Parliament and the financialtransactions recorded in the financial statements
conform to the authorities which govern them.
I communicate with those charged withgovernance regarding, among other matters,
the planned scope and timing of the audit
and significant audit findings, including any
significant deficiencies in internal control that I
identify during my audit.
ReportI have no observations to make on thesefinancial statements.
Gareth Davies
12 July 2021
Comptroller and Auditor General
National Audit Office157-197 Buckingham Palace Road
Victoria
LondonSW1W 9SP--------------------

Financial
statements

3

The National Archives

Annual Report and Accounts 2020-21

3. Financial statements
Statement of Comprehensive Net Expenditure for the year ended 31 March 2021
2020-212019-20

Note

£000

£000

Revenue from contracts with customers

4(5,325)(9,148)Other operating income

4(5,656)(4,336)(10,981)(13,484)

Total operating income
Staff costs

3

25,92924,478Purchase of goods and services

315,396

18,659Depreciation, provisions and audit charges

3

6,151

6,332

Total operating expenditure

47,47649,469Net operating expenditure

36,49535,985

Other comprehensive net expenditure
Items that will not be reclassified to net operating expenditure:- Net gain on revaluation of property, plant and equipment

5(2,387)(3,240)- Net (gain)/loss on revaluation of intangible assets

6(1,364)

454

(20)

2

32,72433,201- Depreciation of donated assets
Comprehensive net operating expenditure for the year78--------------------

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Annual Report and Accounts 2020-21

Statement of Financial Position as at 31 March 2021
31 March 2021

31 March 2020

Note

£000

£000

£000

Property, plant and equipment

5

163,988

165,223

Intangible assets

6

29,337

26,867

Prepayments falling due after one year

8

164

£000

Non-current assets:

Total non-current assets

70
193,489

192,160

Current assets:
Inventories

146

126

Trade and other receivables

8

4,441

3,853

Contract assets

8

654

749

127

10

Cash and cash equivalents
Total current assets
Total assets

5,368

4,738

198,857

196,898

Current liabilities
Trade and other payables

9(4,924)(5,857)

Contract liabilities

9

(60)

(238)

Provisions

10

(48)

(14)

Total current liabilities(5,032)(6,109)Total assets less current liabilities

193,825

190,789

Non-current liabilities:
Contract liabilities

9

(401)

(452)

Provisions

10

(130)

(167)

Total non-current liabilities

(531)

(619)

Total assets less liabilities

193,294

190,170

General fund

57,42158,015

Revaluation reserve

135,852

132,15421

1

193,294

190,170

Taxpayers' equity and other reserves:

Donated asset reserve
Total equity

Jeff James,
Accounting Officer,
12 July 2021-

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Annual Report and Accounts 2020-21

Statement of Cash Flows for the year ended 31 March 2021
2020-21Note

2019-20

£000

£000

(36,495)(35,985)

Cash flows from operating activities
Net operating expenditure
Adjustments for non-cash transactions

3

6,151

6,332

(Increase)/decrease in trade and other receivables

8

(682)

1,289

Decrease in contract assets

8

95

161

(20)

(19)

Increase in inventories
Decrease in trade and other payables

9

(984)

(643)

Decrease in contract liabilities

9

(178)

(1,103)

Increase in balance with Consolidated Fund

9

(117)

-

Use of provisions

10

(19)

(13)

(32,249)(29,981)

Net cash outflow from operating activities
Cash flows from investing activities
Purchase of property, plant and equipment

5(2,315)(1,812)

Purchase of intangible assets

6(1,232)(1,024)23-(3,524)(2,836)

From the Consolidated Fund (Supply) – current year

35,89032,817

Net financing

35,89032,817

Net increase/(decrease) in cash and cash equivalents in the period before
adjustment for receipts and payments to the Consolidated Fund

117-

Cash and cash equivalents at the beginning of the period

1010Cash and cash equivalents at the end of the period

127

10

Capital grant donation
Net cash outflow from investing activities
Cash flows from financing activities80--------------------

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Annual Report and Accounts 2020-21

Statement of Changes in Taxpayers’ Equity for the year ended 31 March 2021
General Fund

Revaluation
Reserve

Donated Asset
Reserve

Taxpayers’
equity

£000

£000

£000

£000

Balance at 1 April 2019

58,994131,4823

190,479

Net Parliamentary funding

32,817--32,817

Comprehensive net expenditure for theyear(35,985)

2,786

(2)

(33,201)

75

-

-

75

Transfers between reserves

2,114(2,114)--

Balance at 31 March 2020

58,015132,1541

190,170

Net Parliamentary funding

35,773--35,773Comprehensive net expenditure for theyear(36,495)

3,751

20

(32,724)

75

-

-

75

Transfers between reserves

53

(53)

-

-

Balance at 31 March 2021

57,421

135,852

21

193,294

Note

Auditor’s remuneration

Auditor’s remuneration

3

3

81

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The National Archives

Annual Report and Accounts 2020-21

Notes to the Departmental Resource Accounts
1.

Statement of accounting policies, key accounting estimates andjudgements

1.1
Statement of accounting policies
These accounts have been prepared inaccordance with the 2020-21 ‘Government
Financial Reporting Manual’ (FReM) and
Accounts Direction issued by HM Treasury
under section 6(4) of the Government
Resources and Accounts Act 2000. The
accounting policies contained in the FReM
apply International Financial ReportingStandards (IFRS) as adapted or interpreted forthe public sector context.
The accounting policies adopted by The
National Archives are described below. Where
the FReM permits a choice of accounting
policy, the accounting policy that is judged
to be most appropriate to the particular
circumstances of The National Archives isapplied for the purpose of giving a true andfair view. They have been applied to all items
that are material to the accounts.
In addition to the primary statements
prepared under IFRS, the FReM also requires
the department to prepare an additional
primary statement. The Statement of
Parliamentary Supply and supporting notes
show outturn against Estimate in terms of the
net resource requirement and the net cash
requirement.
1.2
Basis of preparation
These accounts have been prepared under
the historical cost convention except asotherwise set out in the accounting policies.
Transactions denominated in foreign currency
are translated into sterling at the exchange
rate ruling at the time of the transaction. Any
assets and liabilities in a foreign currency82

are translated into sterling at the exchange
rate on the date of reporting. Translationdifferences are recognised in the Statement ofComprehensive Net Expenditure (SoCNE).
Going concern
In common with other government
departments, The National Archives’ liabilities
are expected to be met by future grantsof supply and the application of future
income, both to be approved annually by
Parliament. There is no reason to believethat future Parliamentary approval will not
be forthcoming, and therefore, in accordancewith FReM 4.2.14, it has been concluded as
appropriate to adopt the going concern basisof preparation for these accounts.
1.3

New and revised standards issued
but not effective
There is one newly issued accounting standard(IFRS 16 Leases) which is not yet effective thatwill have an impact on The National Archives
financial statements in future periods.
IFRS 16 has been adopted by the FReM andwas planned to be effective from 1 April 2021.
However, HM Treasury has agreed with the
Financial Reporting Advisory Board (FRAB) to
defer the implementation of IFRS 16 Leases
until 1 April 2022. This is because of thecircumstances caused by COVID-19.
The new standard requires an organisation torecognise all the assets which it leases, such as
any property or equipment, in the Statementof Financial Position as if they were owned
outright. All future payments due under theterms of lease are to be recognised upfront--------------------

The National Archives

as a corresponding liability. Current effective
standards do not require all leased assets tobe recognised in this way, and future payment
commitments are simply disclosed.
The National Archives has carried out an initialassessment of the new standard and has
concluded that the only significant lease thatwill be affected by this standard relates to useof a storage facility.
The National Archives has a storage lease for15 years. This will require the recognition of aright of use asset and a liability for the futurelease payment commitments in the Statementof Financial Position. The change will only
be applied to transactions relevant to theperiod after the date of the policy change. The
National Archives estimate that on 1 April 2022
£6.2 million will be recognised as a right of use
asset and related liability.
The National Archives currently recognises
income from a licence of intellectual property(‘The Gazette’) as an operating lease under
IAS 17. This income will be accounted forin accordance with IFRS 15 once IFRS 16 is
adopted.
The National Archives does not act as a financelessor.
Accounting policies for expenditure
1.4
Staff costs
Staff costs include wages and salaries, social
security costs and pension costs. All shortterm staff costs payable at the year end, which
will be paid within one year from the date ofreporting, are recognised in the Statementof Comprehensive Net Expenditure. These
include any accrued leave entitlements.
1.5
Pensions
Most past or present employees are coveredby the provisions of the Principal Civil Service

Annual Report and Accounts 2020-21

Pension Scheme (PCSPS) and alpha (apension scheme introduced on 1 April 2015),
which are defined benefit schemes open toparticipating public sector bodies in which
the benefit the employee receives during
retirement is dependent on factors suchas age, length of service and salary. These
schemes are administered by MyCSP on behalfof the Cabinet Office. The National Archives
pays contributions into these schemes at anagreed rate. As one of many participatingorganisations, The National Archives is not able
to identify its share of any liability for making
future pension payments to members and,accordingly, The National Archives accounts forthis as if it were a defined contribution scheme
and recognises the costs of these contributions
when they fall due.
Employees may opt to join a personal
stakeholder pension scheme instead,providing the scheme meets the minimum
criteria set by Government. These are defined
contribution schemes where The National
Archives pays established contribution rates
into a separate fund. The amount of pension
benefit that a member receives in retirement
is dependent on the performance of the fund.
The National Archives recognises the costof these contributions in the Statement ofComprehensive Net Expenditure when theyfall due. There is no further payment obligation
once the contributions have been paid.
1.6
Early departure costs
Where The National Archives ends theemployment of a staff member and makes acompensation payment within the rules of the
Civil Service Compensation Scheme (CSCS), thecost of that payment is recognised in full in theyear the individual accepts the terms of thecompensation payment.

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1.7
Grant expenditure
Grants payable are recognised when thecriteria for a constructive obligation are met,
payment is probable, values can be measured
reliably, and there are no conditions attachedto payment that limit recognition.
1.8
LeasesPayments in relation to operating leases arecharged to the Statement of Comprehensive
Net Expenditure on a straight-line basis overthe lease term.
1.9
Value Added Tax (VAT) on purchases
Most of the activities of the department areoutside the scope of VAT and, in general,
input tax on purchases is not recoverable.
Irrecoverable VAT is charged to the relevant
expenditure category or included in thecapitalised purchase price of non-current
assets.
Accounting policies for income
1.10 Revenue recognition
Revenue principally comprises contracted
charges for services provided for the sale ofcopies of documents, sale of publications
and other items and services, reproduction
fees, income generated by the licensing ofdigital copies of historical records and storage
facility income. Costs associated with thecontracted revenue are recognised in the sameaccounting period.
Operating income also includes grants andcontributions from organisations, including
other government departments, to carry out
specific projects.
Further details of The National Archives
recognition of contracted income are set out innote 4.
1.11 Lessor income
The National Archives rents a section of the84

Annual Report and Accounts 2020-21

building to a third party. Rental income isrecognised as it falls due. Rental income
includes a service charge levied on an annual
basis to recover central costs borne by The
National Archives.
The National Archives acts as lessor ona concessionary contract (‘The Gazette’)
whereby in return for letting the concession avariable financial contribution is recognised as
publishing rights are granted.
1.12 Value Added Tax (VAT) on sales
Where output tax is chargeable, income isstated net of VAT. The National Archives does
not charge VAT for any work it carries out
under statute.
Accounting policies for assets and liabilities
1.13 Property, plant and equipment andintangible assets
Expenditure of £5,000 or more on property,
plant and equipment or intangible assets
is capitalised where it is expected to bring
benefit over future years. On initial recognition,assets are measured at cost and include allcosts directly attributable to bringing theminto working condition. This includes thecosts of external contractors who deliver on
information technology projects as well assalaries of internal staff working 100 per cent of
their time on particular capital projects. Wherebulk purchases are made for individual assets
whose unit costs are below the threshold, but
in aggregate exceed £30,000 within a financial
year, the assets are capitalised.
All non-current assets are reviewed annuallyfor impairment and are carried at fair value.
Property, plant, and equipment is depreciated,
and intangible assets amortised, on a straightline basis over their useful lives to ensure thatthey are reported at their estimated residual
value at the end of their lives.

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The National Archives

Annual Report and Accounts 2020-21

Property, plant and equipment
The National Archives building and grounds
at Kew are freehold property. The landand buildings are stated at fair value using
professional valuations every five years at aminimum. Appropriate indices are applied inintervening years.
Other non-current assets are stated at fairvalue using appropriate indices only where
their values are material with respect tothe overall net book value of non-current
assets held. Where indices are not applied,depreciated historical cost is considered as aproxy for fair value, as per FReM 10.1.14.
Expenditure on restoration and conservation
work is part of the normal operating costs of
The National Archives and is not capitalised; itis recorded as part of programme costs.
Depreciation
Depreciation is provided at rates calculated towrite off the valuation of freehold buildings
and other non-current assets by equal
instalments over their estimated useful lives.
Freehold land and assets in the course of
construction are not depreciated.
Asset lives are in the following ranges:
Buildings

up to 40 years

Computers andequipment

up to 5 years

Plant and machinery

up to 25 years

Furniture, fixtures andfittings

up to 50 years

Transport equipment

up to 10 years

Intangible assets
Intangible assets comprise software licences
purchased from third parties, amortisedover the life of the licence, and the cost ofdeveloping internal software assets, amortised
on a straight-line basis over the useful
economic life of the asset.
In addition, The National Archives recognises
licences issued to third parties and internal
revenue generating databases (such as
our Digital Download and Image Libraryservices) as intangible assets with indefinite
lives, reflecting their underlying nature of
supporting public records.
Asset lives are in the following ranges:
Software licences

up to 5 years

Internally developed
softwareup to 10 years

Licences issued to third
parties

indefinite

Internally developed
revenue-generating
databases

indefinite

The valuation adopted for licences issued
to third parties and internal revenue
generating databases is based on current
forecasts of reasonably foreseeable future
revenue generating capacity, discounted as
appropriate. Further details of the effects ofchanges in our forecast estimates are shown
under note 6 of the accounts.
1.14 Heritage assets
The National Archives holds more than 11
million physical records, artefacts and asignificant and growing digital archive classed
as non-operational heritage assets. These areheld in order to fulfil our statutory function,
which includes ensuring that important
information is preserved and that it can beaccessed and used.
Records in our collection have beencatalogued and contain descriptions of a broad85---------------------

The National Archives

range of documents and items. Further detailsof our online catalogue, Discovery, can be found
at: discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/.
In the opinion of The National Archives’ Board,
reliable information on cost or valuation is
not available for the department’s collectionof heritage assets. This is due to the diverse
nature of the assets held, the lack of
information on purchase cost (as the assets
are not purchased), the lack of comparable
market values, and the volume of items held.
As well as the aforementioned, any market
value placed on these assets would not be atrue reflection of the value of the assets to thenation’s heritage; the assets, if lost, could not
be replaced or reconstructed. These assets
are therefore not reported in the Statement of
Financial Position.
Certain items within the overall collection are ofparticular significance, including the Domesday
Book, one of our most prized national treasures,
which has been preserved for over nine centuries
and is now cared for at Kew; two contemporary
versions of Magna Carta; unique records ofofficial treaties; and a host of irreplaceable social
records. Further details of the preservation andmanagement of our heritage assets are provided
in note 7 of the accounts.
1.15 Cash and cash equivalents
Cash and cash equivalents comprise current
balances held at the Government Bank Service.
Any amounts held in foreign currency aretranslated into sterling at the exchange rate on
the date of reporting.
1.16 Contract and trade receivables
Contract receivables are amounts invoiced
and due from software development, licenses,
record copying or other services.
Trade receivables are amounts invoiced anddue in respect of lessor income, grant income
86

Annual Report and Accounts 2020-21

and specific Government Contracts.
1.17 Contract assets and liabilities
Contract assets relate to our enforceable
right to consideration for our completed
performance in respect of contracts wherethat work has not yet been invoiced. It isdetermined on the basis of work undertaken
at the period end, less any provision for
unrecoverable amounts.
Payments received in advance of performance
under the contract are recognised as contract
liabilities. This is then recognised as revenue as
the work is performed.
1.18

Significant accounting judgements,
estimates and assumptions
The preparation of financial statements
requires management to make judgements,
estimates and assumptions that affect thereported amounts of assets, liabilities, income
and expenses. Actual results may differ fromthese estimates. The financial statements of
The National Archives include estimates andassumptions that could influence the financial
statements of subsequent financial years.
Estimates and underlying assumptions arereviewed on an ongoing basis. Revisions toaccounting estimates are recognised in the
period in which the estimate is revised and inany future periods effected.
Non-current assets: In the current year theland and buildings are stated at fair value
using professional valuations. Professional
valuations are required every five years at aminimum with appropriate indices used inintervening years. The selection of the indicesused represents an accounting judgement
and uncertainty in the valuation of land andbuildings.
Intangible Assets: The valuations of licenses
issued to third parties and internal revenue---------------------

The National Archives

generating databases are based on forecasts
of probable future revenue generating
capacity, which are uncertain. Further details
are in note 6.
Heritage assets: Reliable information on cost or
valuation is not available for the department’s
collection of heritage assets and, accordingly,
an accounting judgement has been made not
to value these in the financial statements.
Further details are in note 1.14.
Revenue recognition: As set out in note 4, IFRSAnnual Report and Accounts 2020-21

15 – Revenue from Contracts with Customers
requires judgements and estimates.
Judgement relates to the determination of
performance obligations in each of the major
revenue streams having the potential toimpact the revenue recognition pattern under
the contract. Assumptions are required todetermine an appropriate measure of progress
when determining how control over promised
goods or services transfers to the customer. Allof the above have the potential to result in adifferent revenue recognition pattern.

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Annual Report and Accounts 2020-21

2. Statement of Operating Expenditure by Operating Segment
IFRS 8 Operating Segments requires operating
segmental information to be provided basedon information that the Chief Executive andKeeper as Chief Operating Decision Maker(CODM) uses to make decisions about theorganisation. This information reviewed by
the CODM is currently presented based on
our management structure as per pages 37
to 38. To aid readers’ understanding, thesegments below have been presented in linewith our public task, which can be summarised
as: leading on policy and best practice inknowledge and information management forthe public sector; preserving and protecting
the record; and providing public access.
In accordance with IFRS 8, below is a scheduleof income and expenditure against eachidentified segment. Overheads are allocatedproportionally based on the direct costs ofeach segment.

2020-21
Government
information
management

Preservationand protection

Public access

Total

£000

£000

£000

£000

Income(3,148)(549)(7,284)(10,981)

Operating expenditure

9,726

15,861

15,83941,426

Depreciation, amortisation and impairment

1,420

2,317

2,313

6,050

Net operating cost

7,998

17,62910,86836,4952019-20

Government
information
management

Preservationand protection

Public access

Total

£000

£000

£000

£000

Income(2,361)(495)(10,628)(13,484)

Operating expenditure

8,628

16,464

18,121

43,213

Depreciation, amortisation and impairment

1,249

2,383

2,624

6,256

Net operating cost

7,516

18,352

10,11735,98588--------------------

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Annual Report and Accounts 2020-21

3. Operating costs
2020-21£000

2019-20
£000

£000

£000

Staff Costs
Wages and salaries

19,214

17,956Social Security costs

1,993

1,868

Other pension costs

4,801

4,620

Secondment charges/(recoveries)

(79)

34
25,92924,478Purchase of goods and services
Goods and services

5,474

6,042

346

-

Contracted services

2,243

2,826

Building maintenance and costs

3,458

3,403

Office supplies and equipment

199

249

2,031

2,082

190

198

1,022

151

Public access

62

613

Recruitment and training

221

333

Travel, subsistence and hospitality

16

362

Professional expenses

125

154

9

2,246

Storage lease rental (see below)

Technology cost
Telecommunication
Grants paid

Contract expenditure (IFRS 15)

15,396

18,659Non-cash items:
Depreciation and amortisation- Civil estate

3,950- Other non-current assets

2,100

Total depreciation

3,959
2,297
6,050

6,256

Auditor's remuneration – audit work

75

Loss on disposal of non-current assets

10-

Change to onerous lease provision16

1

Total other non-cash items

75

76

101

Total non-cash items

6,151

6,332

Total operating expenditure

47,47649,469Further analysis on staff numbers,
compensation scheme packages and pension
disclosure can be found on pages 52 to 63,
within the accountability report.
No fees have been paid to auditors for nonaudit work.
Storage lease rental
A new storage agreement for archival records

commenced on the 1 July 2020 and is classified
as an operating lease in 2020-21. The costs
associated with the storage of the documents
are shown under Storage lease rental. Storage
costs of £437,000 for 2019-20 and £112,000
from April to June 2020 were not classified
as a lease and are included within goods andservices.

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The National Archives

Contract expenditure
In accordance with IFRS 15, revenue and costs
relating to a software development contract
spanning three years were held as a contract
liability in the Statement of Financial Position

90

Annual Report and Accounts 2020-21

until the performance obligation was met
during 2019-20. Costs incurred of £2,246,000
were released from contract liabilities and areshown in operating costs above.

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The National Archives

Annual Report and Accounts 2020-21

4. IncomeThe following are descriptions of the principal
contracted activities, their associatedperformance obligations and significant
payment terms under IFRS 15.

Revenue stream

Timing of performance obligations andsignificant payment terms

Licensing royalties. Commercial partners
use accessioned content on their websites
or within their online products and pay
royalties to us when our subscribers use
this content, or customers purchase theirproducts.

Revenue is recognised in line with usage/sales,
and billing arrangements vary from a monthly
to annual basis.

Storage income. Commercial partners
store records in The National Archives
storage facility.

Revenue is recognised in line with usage, withbilling arranged quarterly.

Licensing resales. The initial commercial
partner is required to provide us with adigitised copy of the images from which we
can sell to an additional partner for a lumpsum and benefit from further royalties.

The lump sum is received in advance andrecognised at the time of granting the licenceand images unless we require the images
to be updated over the period in which thecommercial partner has access to the licenced
material. In such cases, the lump sum isrecognised over the period of the licence.

Reprographics. A digitisation service forbulk orders from third parties. The records
can belong to us or external parties.

Revenue is recognised once the copies areprovided to the third party and typically billedin advance.

Software development. Preparation ofrecords and the development of a website
for use by commercial partner.

Revenue is recognised once control of thesoftware has passed to the commercial
partner. Billing is in line with costs incurred.
Project revenue and costs are deferred until
ownership has passed.

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Annual Report and Accounts 2020-21

2020-212019-20

£000

£000

-

3,056

Licensing royalties

3,237

2,784

Storage income

319

307

Licensing resales

318

329

Reprographics

296

480

Drafting tools

236

142

Record copying

192

561

Shop income

168

244

Legislation services

128

141

Document downloads

97

265

Revenue from contracts with customers
Software development

Other

334

839

5,325

9,148

Fees charged to other government departments

676

341

Grant income

562

410

Apprenticeship levy notional income

48

51

Other operating income

Lessor income

4,370

3,534

5,656

4,336

10,981

13,484

The 2019-20 receipt of £3,056,000 for software development is derived from a single commercial
partner and exceeds 10 per cent of the total revenue (2020-21: nil).

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The National Archives

Annual Report and Accounts 2020-21

5. Property, plant and equipment
Land

Buildings

Plant andmachinery

Furniture
fixtures andfittings

Computers
andequipment

Assets underconstruction

Total

£000

£000

£000

£000

£000

£000

£000

43,764

125,553

10,486

10,384

10,841

1,047

202,075

Additions

-

68

584

832

371

460

2,315

Reclassification

-

-

529

438

63

(1,030)-

Disposals

-

-

-

-

(268)

-

(268)

Revaluation

1,836(19,121)

-

-

-

-

(17,285)

At 31 March 2021

45,600106,500

11,59911,654

11,007477

186,837

At 1 April 2020-

15,722

6,617

5,340

9,173

-

36,852

Charged in year

-

3,950

750

555

672

-

5,927

Disposals

-

-

-

-

(258)

-

(258)

Revaluation-(19,672)

-

-

-

-

(19,672)

At 31 March 2021

-

-

7,367

5,895

9,587

-

22,849At 31 March 2021

45,600106,500

4,232

5,759

1,420

477

163,988

At 31 March 2020

43,764

109,831

3,869

5,044

1,668

1,047

165,223

Plant andmachinery

Furniture
fixtures andfittings

Computers
andequipment

Assets underconstruction

Cost or valuation
At 1 April 2020

Depreciation

Net book value

Buildings

Land

Total

£000

£000

£000

£000

£000

£000

£000

42,864

122,718

10,283

10,31010,693-

196,868

Additions

-

252

289

76

148

1,047

1,812

Disposals

-

-

(86)

(2)

-

-

(88)

Revaluation

900

2,583

-

-

-

-

3,483

43,764

125,553

10,486

10,384

10,841

1,047

202,075

At 1 April 2019-11,551

5,927

4,834

8,283

-

30,595Charged in year

-

3,928

776

508

890

-

6,102

Disposals

-

-

(86)

(2)

-

-

(88)

Revaluation

-

243

-

-

-

-

243

At 31 March 2020-

15,722

6,617

5,340

9,173

-

36,852

Cost or valuation
At 1 April 2019

At 31 March 2020
Depreciation

Net book value
At 31 March 2020

43,764

109,831

3,869

5,044

1,668

1,047

165,223

At 31 March 2019

42,864111,167

4,356

5,476

2,410

-

166,27393---------------------

The National Archives

Notes
a)
Freehold land and buildings
were valued on 31 March 2021 at£152.1 million BNP Paribas Real Estate(the “Valuer”) acting in the capacity of
external valuers. The valuation was inaccordance with the requirements of
the Government’s Financial Reporting
Manual, and the Royal Institute ofChartered Surveyors Valuation –Global Standards, 2020 (Red Book),
to include the International Valuation
Standards, and the RICS Valuation –Global Standards, 2017: UK National
Supplement.
The Valuation was on the basis of Fair
Value Market Value, as adapted by the
FReM for the public sector context.
The Valuer’s opinion of Fair Value wasprimarily derived using the depreciatedreplacement cost approach because the94

Annual Report and Accounts 2020-21

specialised nature of the asset meansthat there are no market transactions of
this type of asset except as part of thebusiness or entity.
b)

Revaluation in year is accounted
for within other comprehensive net
expenditure (page 76) and accumulated
in taxpayers’ equity under therevaluation reserve.

c)

A grant of £23,000 was received for thepurchase of a Safepod costing £24,000.
A Safepod is a prefabricated safe setting
which provides accredited researcherswith secure access to sensitive datasets.
A capital grant of £264,000 was received
from the Arts and Humanities ResearchCouncil, of which £223,000 was spenton heritage science and digitisationequipment in year.

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The National Archives

Annual Report and Accounts 2020-21

6. Intangible assets
Internallydeveloped
revenuegenerating
databases

Softwarelicences

Licences
issued tothird parties

Assets underconstruction

Total

£000

£000

£000

£000

£000

843

789

24,571

1,177

27,380

Cost or valuation
At 1 April 2020
Additions

-

-

-

1,232

1,232

Revaluation

-

(221)

1,585

-

1,364

843

568

26,156

2,409

29,976

At 1 April 2020

513

-

-

-

513

Charged in year

126

-

-

-

126

At 31 March 2021

639

-

-

-

639

At 31 March 2021

204

568

26,156

2,409

29,337

At 31 March 2020

330

789

24,571

1,177

26,867

Licences
issued tothird parties

Assets underconstruction

At 31 March 2021
Amortisation

Net book value

Internallydeveloped
revenuegenerating
databases

Softwarelicences

Total

£000

£000

£000

£000

£000

At 1 April 2019

654

1,555

24,259342

26,810Additions

189

-

-

835

1,024

Revaluation

-

(766)

312

-

(454)

843

789

24,571

1,177

27,380

At 1 April 2019

357

-

-

-

357

Charged in year

156

-

-

-

156

At 31 March 2020

513

-

-

-

513

Cost or valuation

At 31 March 2020
Amortisation

Net book value
At 31 March 2020

330

789

24,571

1,177

26,867

At 31 March 2019

297

1,555

24,259342

26,453

Assets under construction relates to internallygenerated software to be depreciated once
ready for use.
Revaluation in year is accounted for within
other comprehensive net expenditure (page76) and accumulated in taxpayers’ equity
under the revaluation reserve. Any decrease invaluation of an asset in year has not exceeded
any amount previously credited to therevaluation surplus.
The intangible asset valuations of revenuegenerating databases and licences issued tothird parties are based on forecasts of future
revenue generating capacity, discounted as
appropriate. The forecast cashflows estimatedare subject to market conditions as they are
dependent on customer use of the products
offered – both existing and new.
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The National Archives

Below is a sensitivity analysis of the effects ofchanges in the forecast assumptions on the

Annual Report and Accounts 2020-21

amounts disclosed in the accounts.

Increase/(decrease) in 2020-21
valuation

Market risk – assumptions tested£000
2020-21 income 10% less than forecast for revenue generating databases(113)

2020-21 income 10% higher than forecast for revenue generating databases

113

2020-21 income 10% less than forecast for licences issued(2,856)2020-21 income 10% higher than forecast for licences issued

2,856

IAS 36 requires intangible assets with anindefinite useful economic life to be tested for
impairment annually and whenever there isan indication that the asset may be impaired,by comparing its carrying amount with its
recoverable amount. As a result of undertaking
this exercise there is no impairment to thevalue of the assets.

7. Further information on heritage assets7a) Preservation and management
Acquisition of heritage assets is throughgovernment bodies selecting digital andphysical records for permanent preservationand transferring these records to The National
Archives. In January 2013, central government
began a 10-year transition, during which
the age at which records would usually betransferred to The National Archives andreleased to the public is being reduced from30 years to 20 years (however, many aretransferred early).

significant collections of digital records.

The National Archives is the guardian of thenation’s public records. Its core role includes
preserving and protecting, making available,
and bringing to life the vast collection ofhistorical information it holds. Most of therecords are unique and irreplaceable andhave been preserved for their historical, social,legal and administrative value. This includes

Expenditure that is required to preserveor clearly prevent further deterioration ofindividual collection items is recognised in theStatement of Comprehensive Net Expenditurewhen it is incurred. In 2020-21: £2.09 million
was recognised (2019-20: £1.98 million).

96

We adopt a risk-based approach in preserving
our digital and physical records. This consistsof conducting a preservation risk assessment
for whole collections which is subsequently
reviewed periodically – and for digital records,
on a continual and regular basis. The National
Archives adopts a combined approach ofpreventative measures and conservation
treatments for records in their digital andphysical forms.

--------------------

The National Archives

Our approach to preservation risk
Physical records
The physical records held by The National
Archives span over 1,000 years and fill morethan 200 linear kilometres of shelving onsite at Kew and at the Deepstore facility in
Cheshire. They comprise a variety of formats:parchment, traditional paper records, seals,
maps, costumes, paintings, films, items ofcourt evidence, and more.
The conservation, preservation and careof this unique and irreplaceable collection
is a challenging responsibility, given theage and original condition of some of thephysical materials. We have a dedicated teamresponsible for the long-term preservationof The National Archives’ physical collection
for continued access and future use, and we
improve the stability of our most vulnerable
records through conservation work.
We seek appropriate and secureaccommodation for all our holdings, wherever
they are stored, processed, transferred,transported or used. This includes providing
suitable environmental conditions andappropriate housing. It also includes
monitoring via an integrated pest management
programme and an environmental monitoring
system. We recognise that of all potential risks
to the long-term preservation of our records,
inappropriate storage is the most significant.
The Secretary of State has delegated theirpower at section 2(4)(g) of the Public Records
Act 1958 to the Chief Executive of The National
Archives (in his capacity as Keeper of Public
Records). The Chief Executive therefore hasdelegated authority to lend documents fordisplay at exhibitions. All loans are conductedin accordance with our exhibitions policy andare subject to criteria agreed with Department
of Digital, Culture, Media and Sport officials,

Annual Report and Accounts 2020-21

in line with the loans polices of other major
cultural heritage institutions.
Digital records
The National Archives takes a leading role indealing with the issues associated with thesurvival and preservation of today’s digitalpublic records.
Our digital preservation techniques andpolicies follow current best practice, as
recognised nationally and globally. It involves
first establishing the file formats of theaccessioned records and then preserving theoriginal digital objects using passive ‘bit level’
preservation; this ensures the secure storage
and fundamental integrity of the record.
A regular assessment of the risk of digitalrecords becoming unfit for presentation ismade and should a format be identified as
posing a risk, action to migrate records in thatformat (or to otherwise mitigate that risk)
is taken. The National Archives will always
maintain the original manifestation of therecord as accessioned.
During the year, we took 3,390 snapshots ofwebsites and social media accounts for the UK
Government web archive (2,998 in 2019-20).
7b) Access
Details of the records we hold can be obtained
through our online catalogue, Discovery. All
open records are available for viewing bymembers of the public and can be viewed
free of charge on site at Kew or copies can berequested to be sent out for a fee. Generally,
digital copies of some of our open documents
are also available for download from our online
services – some may be downloaded freeand some for a small fee. A brief registration
process is required to consult original
documents; however, this is not required toview surrogates or online copies of documents.
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The National Archives

In a normal year, access to the records isprovided in a number of ways, both on site andonline. Original documents on site are accessedby readers or staff under controlled conditions,in accordance with nationally recognised andagreed standards.
Readers use the document reading roomand the map and large document reading
room to consult original documents. In somecases, valuable or fragile material may only
be consulted under supervision either within
the conservation studio or in the invigilation
room. In instances where digital records are
unsuitable for online presentation, they may
only be viewed within the Digital Preservation
department.

98

Annual Report and Accounts 2020-21

There are ongoing projects to catalogue moreof our heritage assets, many using volunteers tofurther improve access to records and we havea dedicated catalogue team responsible for this.
While we remained closed to the public,in line with the UK Government’s advice in
response to the pandemic, we provided free
digital downloads of records via Discovery, ouronline catalogue. We also set up a temporary
government reading room, following COVID-19safe measures.
During the periods we were allowed to beopen, all documents were produced in advance.
Orders were placed seven days in advance from
our July 2020 opening, reduced to four days inadvance when we reopened in April 2021.

--------------------

The National Archives

Annual Report and Accounts 2020-21

8. Trade and other receivables
2020-212019-20

£000

£000

Contract receivables

74

230

Trade receivables

1,767

1,005

56

45

Prepayments

1,210

1,193

Accrued income

1,334

1,380

4,441

3,853

654

749

5,095

4,602

164

70

5,259

4,672

Amounts falling due within one year:

Deposits and advances

Contract assets

Amounts falling due after one year:
Prepayments
Total receivables

9. Trade and other payables
2020-212019-20

£000

£000

1,034

974

722

1,027

1,222

2,593

527

425

1,292

828

127

10

4,924

5,857

60

238

4,984

6,095

Contract liabilities

401

452

Total payables

5,385

6,547

Amounts falling due within one year:
Other Taxation, Social Security and Pension
Trade payables
Accruals
Deferred income
Short-term staff benefits (earned leave liability)
Amounts issued from the Consolidated Fund for supply but not spent at year end

Contract liabilities

Amounts falling due after one year:99---------------------

The National Archives

Annual Report and Accounts 2020-21

10. Provisions for liabilities and charges
The following table provides information on liabilities and charges on an onerous lease.
2020-212019-20

£000

£000

Balance at 1 April

181

193

Provision not required written back16

1

Provisions utilised in year

(19)

(13)

Balance as at 31 March

178

181

Analysis of expected timing of discounted cash flow
2020-212019-20

£000

£000

Payable within one year

48

14

Payable later than one year and not later than five years

130

167

Balance as at 31 March

178

181

The onerous lease relates to a vacation of office space within a government building in Norwich.
The lease runs until December 2023.

11. Lease and other commitments
The National Archives has entered into significant non-cancellable contracts (which are notleases or PFI contracts) for a facilities management service and IT Services. The payments towhich The National Archives is committed, analysed by the period during which the commitment
expire are as follows:
2020-21

Not later than one year
Later than one year and not later than five years
Beyond five years

100

2019-20

£000

£000

1,566

1,569

488

1,163

-

-

2,054

2,732

--------------------

The National Archives

Annual Report and Accounts 2020-21

12. Future income due under non-cancellable operating leases
During the year, The National Archives enteredinto a contract to rent a section of the building
to a third party. The aggregate minimum leasereceipts are as follows:

2020-212019-20

£000

£000

Receivable within one year

160-

Receivable later than one year andnot later than five years

174-

13. Financial instruments
As the cash requirements of The National
Archives are met through the Estimatesprocess, financial instruments play a more
limited role in managing risk than would apply
to a non-public sector body of a similar size.
The majority of financial instruments relate

to contracts to buy non-financial items in linewith The National Archives’ expected purchaseand usage requirements and The National
Archives is therefore exposed to little credit or
liquidity risk.

14. Contingent liabilities
There were no material contingent liabilities at the reporting date (2019-20: nil).

15. Related party transactions
The National Archives is a non-ministerial
government department. Its parent
department is the Department for Digital,
Culture, Media and Sport. The Chief Executive
and Keeper, Jeff James reports to the Secretaryof State. The National Archives does not have
any related-party relationships as defined by
IAS 24 Related party disclosures.

Executive Board. Subscription to the ICA waspaid to the sum of £18,305 (2019-20: £17,526).

The National Archives has had a numberof transactions with other government
departments and other central government
bodies, primarily UK Parliament, Office forParliamentary Counsel, Scottish Parliament,
Parliamentary Counsel Office Scotland and theMinistry of Justice.

John Sheridan, Digital Director is a Directorof the Digital Preservation Coalition (DPC)and the DLM Forum, for and on behalf of
The National Archives. The National Archives
paid a membership fee of £9,945 (2019-20:£9,360) and £788 (2019-20: £762) respectively.
The National Archives paid DPC £71,942 fordevelopment of an online digital preservation
learning resource (2019-20: £22,478) and£15,614 (2019-20: nil) for development of adigital preservation risk model. A sponsorshipaward was made to DPC to the sum of £2,500
during 2020-21 (2019-20: nil).

Jeff James, Chief Executive and Keeper, is the
President of the Forum of National Archivists,a sub-forum of the International Council on
Archives (ICA). He is also a member of the ICA

Dr Claire Feehily, Non-executive Board
member and Chair of Audit and Risk
Committee (until 31 May 2021) is a Trusteeof the National Heritage Lottery Fund. Grants
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The National Archives

were received in year to the sum of £288,002(2019-20: £118,087) and grant income isaccrued to the sum of £46,283 (2019-20:£241,567).

Annual Report and Accounts 2020-21

owed to or owed from any of the above related
party organisations.
The Remuneration Report (page 54) contains
details of payments made to key personnel.

There are no further outstanding balances

16. Events after the reporting period date
There have been no significant events after
31 March 2021 that require adjustment to, or
disclosure in, the financial statements.

102

These accounts have been authorised for issue
by the Accounting Officer on the same date as
the C&AG’s Audit Certificate.

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The National Archives

Annual Report and Accounts 2020-21

Annex A
Sustainability accounting and reporting
This report presents an overview of The
National Archives’ activities during the 202021 financial year, and our progress against therevised Greening Government Commitments
targets, and our plans for the next financial
year. This was the final year of the Greening
Government Commitments as they wereextended by one year to March 2021.27
This report was prepared in accordance withHM Treasury’s ‘Public Sector annual reports:
sustainability reporting guidance 2020-21’.
Further information is available on our website.28

Our approach
Governance and reporting
Our key sustainability targets are
summarised within business plansand performance is regularly reviewed
throughout the year. We are committed tomeeting, and exceeding where practicable,
the Greening Government Commitments.
Our Executive Team reviews oursustainability performance regularly. Our
Board and Audit and Risk Committee review
our sustainability performance, ensuringthat progress is scrutinised and challenged
where appropriate.
We are an active participant in sharing bestpractice and benefitting from lessons learnt
from other departments, private and public
sector organisations. We have continued towork with the National Museums Directors
Council (NMDC) this year to share bestpractice within the sector. In particular, thishas focused upon carbon reduction journeys
and increased biodiversity on site as well as
visitor engagement post COVID-19. This work
will continue throughout the coming year
and beyond.

We have shown leadership by joining the
Climate Heritage Network, an international,
non-lobbying, voluntary network, promoting
the concept that culture and heritage areassets for climate action, and we lookforward to collaborating with other members
to increase the positive impact of the sector
over the coming year.
Data accuracy
We review and seek to improve our data
gathering and reporting processes each year.
Quarterly reporting has also been reinstatedfor data accuracy purposes.
The COVID-19 pandemic and resulting periodsof national lockdown led to the site closurein March 2020, with a series of phased reopenings and closures throughout the year.
With the majority of staff continuing to workfrom home, the pandemic has had a positive
impact on both our operational emissions andenvironmental impact. However, the impact on
the environment of staff working from home
has not been calculated or included.

27

www.gov.uk/government/publications/greening-government-commitments-2016-to-2020.

28

nationalarchives.gov.uk/about/our-role/transparency/.
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The National Archives

This year, the data accounting dashboards
continued to be fully utilised to improvedata quality with additional opportunities toenhance data accuracy:■

The relevant dashboards have been
updated with the current emissions andconversions factors■

An interim desktop review of Information
Technology (IT) asset disposal took place.
A full review of operations and disposal
processes will be carried out when
COVID-19 restrictions allow■

The biodiversity template has been
updated making it easier for staff
members to conduct surveys and for datacollection purposes.

In 2020-21, the use of an automated platform
to improve reporting and analytics has
been reviewed and we will be conducting
further due diligence in 2021-22. This will be
particularly important in setting and meetingthe next set of targets.
Our sustainability strategy and targets
As a non-ministerial government department,
we work to achieve the Greening Government
Commitments (GGCs) – a set of targets andoutcomes that together help ensure that104

Annual Report and Accounts 2020-21

central government meets its vision forsustainability.
In many cases, these targets have already beenachieved, and we have set more challenging
internal targets and will continue to do so,
striving to reduce our environmental impacts.
Our environmental management system
is built on sustainability and encourages
continual improvement.
We translated the 2019-20 environmental
goals and targets into a short infographic andshared across the organisation to engage andpromote the progress to date with simple
messages. This has proven to be successful,and we continued to provide the same forthe 2020-21 information to highlight thesustainability progress achieved.
In 2020-21, we continued to review ouroperations in line with the applicable
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs),
highlighting how we contribute to these Goals
and to help inform our future strategy. Ourattention continues to focus on those SDGs
that align closely to our strategic goals andwhere we would have most impact.
Some of our visitor engagement activities were
hindered by COVID-19. However, this remains
a strategic priority for financial year 2021-22.

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The National Archives

Sustainable Development
Goals (SDGs)

Annual Report and Accounts 2020-21

2020-21 Progress

Focus for 2021-22

Improved wellbeing
SDG 3. Good Health &Wellbeing

Supported employees in
Improve wellbeingtransitioning to home working
Visitor engagement andSupported staff to return toawarenessthe building and new ways ofworking

SDG 8. Decent Work andEconomic Growth

Defined what the New Social
Value Model means to The
National Archives

Embed new Social Valueand Modern Slavery Act
requirements into all
procurement, systems andprocesses

SDG 11. Sustainable Cities &Communities

Joined the Climate Heritage
Network

Climate and energy outreachwith stakeholders

Focused on removing single
use beverage containers

SDG 12. Responsible
Consumption and Production Explored solutions for hard torecycle waste
SDG 13. Climate Action

Continued to focus onemissions reduction

SDG 15. Life on Land

Biodiversity surveys
conducted throughout
COVID-19

Progress against each of these areas iscaptured within the sections below and forms
a key workstream of the Green Champions
Network to engage employees and highlightareas of opportunity, both in the workplace
and at home. The objectives of this network
are to reinforce and embed environmental
initiatives, improve internal knowledge sharing,

Further development ofsustainable procurement
process
Develop an organisation-wide
Net Zero strategy and action
plan aligned with GGC’s
Biodiversity Action Plan
Review
Further signage for staff andvisitor engagement.

and promote employee engagement withenvironmental efficiency projects.
Meeting the Greening Government
Commitments
Progress has been strong in the final yearof reporting against the revised Greening
Government Commitments targets, buildingon the progress made last year.

105---------------------

The National Archives

Indicator

Greenhousegas emissions

Annual Report and Accounts 2020-21

Our target

Our target

against thecompared(2020-21)(2020-21)

baseline year

baseline (+/-

with 2019-20%)(+/-%)

2009-10

-80%

-32%

2010-110%0%

2010-11

-88%

-74%

2010-11

-21%

-18%

-32%

-65%

10% waste tolandfill
waste

Paper
Water
Domestic
flights taken

Change

GGC target

Less than

Operational

FY21 change

Reduce waste
generation

Zero waste tolandfill-30%*

Increase

Increaserecycling rate

recycling rate

-50%

- 50%

2010-11

-100%

-99%

-25%

2009-10

-38%

-11%

-30%

2009-10

-100%

-100%

Reduce water
consumption-30%* The National Archives has set its own target for waste reduction beyond the previous 25
per cent Greening Government Commitment target against the 2009-10 baseline, to aspire
towards 30 per cent reduction in waste generated.
2020-21 performance
Performance in 2020-21 has continued the previous downward trend for carbon, energy andwaste.

Indicator

2020-212020-21 per per
FTE employee

2019-20

2019-20 per FTE
employee

Greenhousegas emissions– scopes 1-3

2,105

4.2

2,400

4.9

8,542

17.2

8,993

18.6

(tonnes CO2e)
Energy used
(MWh)

106

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The National Archives

Annual Report and Accounts 2020-21

Waste
produced*

83

0.17

96

0.2

17,46235.1

18,514

38.3

21

0.04

19

0.04

(tonnes)
Water used (m3)
Domestic flights
taken* Excludes one-off construction and refurbishment projects waste, to enable meaningful comparison.

Greenhouse gas emissions
The Department of Digital, Culture, Media andSport (DCMS) set an emissions reduction target
for 2020-21 of 63 per cent against the 2009-10
baseline. The National Archives went further
by setting an internal target of 65 per cent forthis period.

Indicator

Our greenhouse gas emissions associated withbuilding energy use and domestic business travelin the 2020-21 financial year were 1,637 tonnes
CO2e. This represents an 80 per cent reduction ingreenhouse gas emissions against the baseline
2009-10 financial year figures and a 22 per centreduction on the previous year’s emissions.

2020-212019-20

1,556

1,959

80

146

3,998

5,279

0

0

90

132

Natural gas

2,941

3,263

Diesel oil

13.8*

0.9

Financial indicators

Energy£734,055£885,650(£)

Business travel£1,021£113,094

Greenhouse gas
emissions (tonnes
CO2e)Gross emissions for
scope 1 and 2
Gross emissions for
scope 3
Electricity: nonrenewable
Electricity: renewable

Building energy

Electricity: good quality

consumption (MWh)combined heat andpower* We had a lengthy power outage during lockdown which required the generators to run for over 24 hours

107---------------------

The National Archives

The intensity of emissions associated with each
unit of electricity consumed has reduced by 52
per cent since the 2009-10 baseline year, with
The National Archives reducing emissions by
84.4 per cent over the same time. Overall totalenergy consumption has reduced by 19 percent in comparison to the same period last year
and by 66 per cent since the baseline year.
In 2020-21, CO2 monitoring sensors have been
installed as a trial scheme in the Estates office
workspace, including meeting rooms andbreakout spaces. This trial will be used to test
if integration with the Building Management
System (BMS) can provide monitoring ofoccupancy levels and reduce the use ofheating, ventilation, air conditioning (HVAC)
in the area whilst maintaining a suitableenvironment for staff, with trend-recordedgraphical data for historical reporting.
The capital project to replace building boilers
has been completed. This has delivered a
reduction in gas consumption, but it is unclear
at this time how much of this was due to theimpact of COVID-19 restrictions.
Additional energy projects implemented thisyear include the continued Light Emitting
Diode (LED) lighting roll out into back of houseareas with motion sensors. In 2021-22 we willcontinue to install LED light fittings in officeareas using lighting with high output passive
infrared sensors (PIR) controlled switching.
Investing in this technology aims to achieve
a 40 per cent reduction in the number of
installed fittings with potentially higher energy
savings.
Although business travel remains a relatively
small contributor to The National Archives’
overall emissions, it has also reduced by 99
per cent when comparing the same period
to last year. There were no flights in 202021 and whole-site annual business travel
108

Annual Report and Accounts 2020-21

emissions were 0.28 tCO2e. Following a review
of business travel emissions data, whole-sitetravel-related emissions for 2019-20 have beenadjusted to 119.3 tCO2e.
We continue to avoid unnecessary businesstravel and have a general approach of
promoting travel by public transport rather
than car, and train rather than plane. This
year working remotely, limits on international
travel, and using technology for businessmeetings, has dramatically reduced therequirement to travel during the COVID-19
pandemic. This has helped further reduce ourcarbon emissions this year.
In 2020-21, we continued to review ourwellbeing programme against a baseline of
wellbeing performance and further highlightareas for improvement which continue to be
developed in 2021-22. Wellbeing initiatives
have been vitally important during the
COVID-19 pandemic and continue to play arole in attracting and retaining staff, improving
productivity, and making the site a desirable
destination for visitors.
Waste minimisation and management
Our waste targets, baselined to 2010-11,
are to reduce the total quantity of waste we
produce, to increase our recycling rate, andto send less than 10 per cent of our waste tolandfill. We also have a target to reduce paper
consumption by 50 per cent.
We have produced a total of 21 tonnes ofgeneral and recycling waste this year, incomparison to the 2010-11 baseline of 174.9
tonnes. No operational waste has been sent
to landfill in 2020-21. Overall average monthly
waste production has reduced by 88 per centsince 2009-10 and 74 per cent since last year.
This overall reduction in waste reflects the site
closures during COVID-19.

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The National Archives

Annual Report and Accounts 2020-21

Indicator

2020-212019-20^

Total

21

83

Recycled and reused

11

52

8

24

2

7

Composted

00

Landfill

0

0

Total

30

8

Recycled and reused29

4

Landfill

0

4

Total

£14,559£19,860

Recycled and reused£4,225£3,639£2,692£7,558£247£1,655£0£0Energy from waste
Operational waste

incineration(tonnes)

Food and catering:anaerobic digestion

Construction andrefurbishment
projects waste(tonnes)^

Operational waste
expenditure (£)*

Energy from waste
incineration
Food and catering:anaerobic digestion
Landfill* Spend data obtained from our facilities management contract provider. Total includes the cost of storage andcontainment.
^ Following a review of the waste service providers reporting, there were some anomalies found in the data collection
methodology for FY2019-20 and this has now been restated.

The proportion of waste being recycled thisfinancial year was 52 per cent. This is lower
than last year (63 per cent) and less than the
proportion achieved throughout 2010-11 (65per cent). This decrease in recycling is due tothe disposal of Personal Protective Equipment(PPE) associated with the COVID-19 pandemic
measures and a reduction in recyclable
materials such as paper. The waste volumes
and types are therefore not representative of

normal operating conditions.
In 2020-21, the Green Champions network
held regular meetings (remotely) with a seriesof key areas promoted to engage employees.
This included discussions about how to further
reduce single-use plastic across departments,
and biodiversity surveys to improve knowledge
both on and off site. Further programmes willcontinue to be developed in alignment with109---------------------

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Annual Report and Accounts 2020-21

the Sustainable Development Goals, within theconstraints of COVID-19 pandemic adaptation.
In 2021-22 we intend to expand the useof the staff intranet to highlight positiveenvironmental outcomes from changes inbehaviour at The National Archives.

The quantity of water consumed by The
National Archives estate this financial year was
15,486m3. This is a reduction of 11 per cent on
the quantity consumed in the same period lastyear (17,462m3), and the consumption is 38 percent lower than that recorded in 2009-10.

In 2020-21, we planned to focus further onvisitor engagement and intended to remove
plastic water bottles and move away fromplastic takeaway cartons, as well as working
with our catering supplier to promote locallysourced food sources, implement healthiereating plans and reduce food waste. Since thecatering facilities remained closed throughout
the year due to COVID-19, no action was taken.

Our paper consumption stands at theequivalent of 20 standard reams of A4 paper –99 per cent less than last year and has reduced
by 99.6 per cent since the 2010-11 baseline.
This significant reduction is due to COVID-19
and the majority of staff working from home.

Improved awareness of sustainability issues,
wellbeing, visitor engagement and supply chain
matters continue to be the focus areas for theGreen Champion network for 2021-22. In 202021, we were due to carry out a staff survey andincorporate questions to improve sustainablebehaviours in the office environment, however
this was delayed due to COVID-19, as the
majority of staff were working from home. We
will now consider running a staff sustainability
survey in 2021-22.

Sustainable procurement
We continue to align our procurement to the
Crown Commercial Service frameworks andseek to consider opportunities of the creationof social and environmental value through our
procurement, rather than focusing solely on
economic factors.
■

In the first half of 2020-21, a stakeholder
engagement exercise was carried out todevelop a definition of Social Value for The
National Archives. In the second half of theyear, the publication of policy note 06/20
defined the primary Social Value criteria
for central government procurement. As aresult, the planned review of procurement
policy was deferred.

■

As a result of COVID-19, strategic projects
on waste reduction and the Government
Procurement Card were also deferred.

■

Our contract for catering services andtheir approach to procuring and disposing
products was due to be reviewed in 202021. However, this was deferred to 2021-22
due to the restaurant closure and otherimpacts of COVID-19.

Use of finite resources
Indicator

2020-212019-20

Water
consumption

15,486

17,462(m )3Water supply
costs (£)
Paper use:
(reams A4 eq.)

£35,740£39,71020

1,697

We have a target to reduce overall water
consumption from 2009-10 levels.
110

The National Archives continues to embedSocial Value into its culture, having carried out
a detailed review to understand what social--------------------

The National Archives

value means for the organisation and where
we can best support and provide benefits
within local communities. We plan to embed
the new Social Value and Modern Slavery Act
requirements into all procurement, systems
and processes during 2021-22.
Biodiversity
The National Archives’ site continues to be an
important ecosystem for birds, bees, small
mammals, and a variety of invertebrates. It has
significant biodiversity value, which positively
impacts its attractiveness as a destination, thewellbeing of employees, and its relationships
with local stakeholders. We value our existing
relationship with Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew,
and look forward to developing this in the
coming year.
This is the fourth year of regular biodiversity
surveys. Whilst the impact of COVID-19 meantthat a survey could not be undertaken in thefirst quarter of the year, surveys from quartertwo resumed and therefore meaningful yearon-year comparisons can be made to devise
recommendations for improvement. The
engagement of the ‘Green Champions’ inbiodiversity last year has been increasingly
successful and we will continue to encourage
involvement by interested staff. The analysis
from the surveys will feed into our new fiveyear biodiversity action plan that will be

Annual Report and Accounts 2020-21

published in 2021-22. Additionally, there are
ongoing discussions regarding new signage
across the site to highlight biodiversity
features to staff, visitors and, in particular, tochildren.
Climate change adaptation
The greatest risks climate change poses forour operations and local area are believed tobe from flooding and temperature extremes;
however, we remain alert to changing risk
profiles.
Sustainable construction
The roof refurbishment project and boiler andCombined Heat and Power (CHP) upgradewere completed this year. We chose to installan additional CHP unit to improve energy
efficiency and forecast that this unit will reduce
electricity demand as well as supporting lowlevel heating demand, providing a sustainableenergy source. We have also continued toprogress our building master plan with theconstruction of two embedded learning spaces
within the reading rooms. These learningspaces will provide public engagement benefits
as they will be used by school groups as partof our education programme, adult learners,
and for group events and holiday activities. In
addition, the spaces can be used for eventsand functions.

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Annual Report and Accounts 2020-21

Annex B
Advisory Council on National Records and Archives: 18th Annual
Report 2020-21
To the Right Honourable Oliver Dowden CBE
MP Secretary of State for Digital, Culture,
Media and Sport (‘DCMS’).
Part One – Introduction

successful reappointment submissions, twomembers were reappointed in February 2021:
Dr Peter Gooderham and Mr John Wood. The
total membership of the Council remains at 18,
including the Chair.

Background
The Advisory Council on National Records
and Archives (the ‘Council’) is an independent
advisory body, created under the Public
Records Act 1958 and exercising statutoryfunctions under that Act. It advises the
Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Mediaand Sport (the ‘Secretary of State’) on issues
relating to access to public records. It also
carries out duties under the Freedom ofInformation Act 2000.

Meetings
The Council held four virtual meetings in May,
July and November 2020 and in March 2021,
together with an additional training meetingin September, at which a number of helpful
and informative presentations were given,
including on the transfer of digital records andon the implications of information already inthe public domain when considering Freedomof Information cases.

Through its sub-committee, the Forum on
Historical Manuscripts and Academic Research(the ‘Forum’), the Council also advises theChief Executive of The National Archives andKeeper of Public Records on matters relating
to independent (non-governmental) archives
outside the public records system.

Council meetings were attended by members,
as well as by Jeff James, The National Archives’
Chief Executive and Keeper of Public Records.
Other representatives from The National
Archives who possess particular expertise
relating to the issues considered by the Council
also participated, as necessary.

The Council’s and the Forum’s respective
remits are described in more detail in
Appendix A and membership details areincluded in Appendix B.

Remuneration
Remuneration for Council members, excluding
the Master of the Rolls, was approved andintroduced on 1 April 2019 and is provided
by the Department for Digital, Culture, Mediaand Sport. Members are remunerated at a
rate of £386 per day to a maximum of £9,264
per year. Council remuneration for 2020-2021
totalled £106,150.

Part Two – The Advisory Council’s work in
2020-21
Membership
The Council is Chaired by the Master of the Rolls,
Sir Geoffrey Vos. Sir Geoffrey was appointed
during the reporting period on 11 January 2021,
following the retirement of Lord Etherton. Mr
Trevor Woolley acts as Deputy Chair. Following

112

Closure of records under the Freedom ofInformation Act
The core of the work of the Council is to:--------------------

The National Archives

1. act on behalf of the Secretary of State, inadvising public record transferring bodies
on the consideration of the public interestin relation to engaged qualified exemptions
as defined in the Freedom of Information
Act (FOIA 2000) when a record is at the
point of transfer to The National Archives.
The Council may respond to applications bysuch bodies for records (in whole or in partas appropriate) to be transferred closed by:a. accepting that the information may be
withheld for longer than 20 years andearmarking the records for release or
re-review at the date identified by theauthorityb. accepting that the information may be
withheld for longer than 20 years but
asking the authority to reconsider the
proposed date for release or re-review
c. questioning the basis on which it isconsidered that the information may
be withheld for longer than 20 years,
asking the authority to reconsider thecase, and, exceptionally, to request
sight of the recordd. advising departmental ministers
against the application of an Freedomof Information (FOI) exemption in aparticular case when, following thoroughexamination of the department’s
rationale, it judges the balance of public
interest to be against closure.
2. providing advice to the Secretary of State
when a public record transferring body has
made an application to retain records thatare 20 years old, which would otherwise
be transferred to The National Archives.
The Secretary of State signals approval for
retention for the specified period by signinga Retention Instrument.

Annual Report and Accounts 2020-21

Given the very large volume of applications
placed before it, the Council works on thebasis of summaries prepared by departments
and scrutinised by The National Archives.
The Council will ask for more details andquestion apparent weaknesses in thearguments for closure until it is satisfied; oruntil the department withdraws or modifies
the request. Occasionally, the Council may
request that one of its members sees the fullrecord (although this was not required in 20202021). Further information on how the Council
scrutinises and challenges the applications it
receives is available on the Council’s website:www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/about/our-role/advisory-council/.
In 2020-21, the Council considered 5,481
applications for closure from departments (asimilar figure to 2019-20). The Council queried
36 per cent of applications for the transfer
of records closed under qualified (i.e. notabsolute) exemptions. This figure compareswith 16 per cent in 2019-20. The increase is notdue to any general deterioration in the qualityof departmental explanations, but rather that
the Council has continued to raise the baron the amount of evidence it has asked of
departments before reaching its conclusions.
Departments have been constructive in their
response to this. Of the records queried,
departments withdrew their applications in
response to the Council’s challenge in 158
cases, compared with 23 in 2019-20.
In 2020-21, the Council considered 804
individual records which departments had
applied to retain (a slight reduction from
878 in 2019-20). The Council queried 8 percent of these (11.5 per cent in 2019-20), anddepartments withdrew 10 applications in
response to the Council’s challenge, comparedwith five in 2019-20. The Secretary of State
has accepted the Council’s advice on every
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The National Archives

application considered this year.
Detailed metrics are at Appendix C.
The Advisory Council’s work on ‘Born
Digital’ records
An increasing proportion of the records
considered by the Council are in digital format.
Although the percentage is currently in single
figures, this will increase significantly as records
since the turn of the century are transferred.
The Council has increased its focus on thechallenges this will present to making historic
records accessible in the future. This has
included the use of informal media in decisionmaking, the increasing volume of material
which will require reviewing because of theuse of email, and the problems of brigading
electronic records when the discipline of aphysical file is absent. The Council’s governanceworking group received a helpful briefing fromthe Foreign, Commonwealth and Development
Office (FCDO) on the use of artificial intelligencein the sensitivity review of historic records,
which is likely to increase across government
in the years ahead. All these developments
have potential implications for the work of theCouncil.
Engagement with departments
From time-to-time, for updates relevant to theCouncil’s work, or where the Council wishes
to provide more support to departments
in meeting the timescales for transfer ofrecords, the Council invites representatives tobrief it in person.
During 2020-21, the Council received such
briefings from: The British Library; Competitions
and Markets Authority; Ministry of Defence;
Foreign and Commonwealth Development
Office; Historic England; Ministry of Justice;
Metropolitan Police; Office for National Statistics;
HM Revenue and Customs; and HM Treasury.

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Annual Report and Accounts 2020-21

Review backlogs
This year, the Council considered a larger thanusual number of requests from departments
relating to the management of review backlogs.
In many cases, this has been due to the impact
of COVID-19, which has prevented departmentsfrom accessing records to undertake selection
for permanent transfer and sensitivity review.
The Council received such retention
applications from the Advisory, Conciliation
and Arbitration Service; Animal Plant and
Health Authority; Attorney General’s Office;British Library; Department for Business,
Energy and Industrial Strategy; Cabinet Office;Companies House; Competitions and Markets
Authority; Crown Prosecution Service; UK
Debt Management Office; Ministry of Defence;
Department for Digital, Culture, Media andSport; Department for Education; Centre
for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture
Science; Department for Environment, Food
& Rural Affairs; UK Export Finance; FoodStandards Agency; Foreign, Commonwealthand Development Office; Forestry Commission;
Permanent Committee on GeographicalNames; Health and Safety Executive; Historic
England; Home Office; Ministry for Housing
Communities and Local Government; The
Insolvency Service; Ministry of Justice; HM
Land Registry; The Meteorological Office;National Audit Office; Office for National
Statistics; Natural England; Natural Resources
Wales; NHS Resolutions; Northern Ireland
Office; Royal Mail Group Ltd and Post OfficeLtd; Privy Council Office; HM Revenue andCustoms; Royal Botanic Gardens Kew; Royal
Parks; Science Museum Group; Serious Fraud
Office; Office for Standards in Education andChildren’s Services and Skills; Tate; Department
for Transport; HM Treasury; Water Services
Regulation Authority; Welsh Government; andDepartment for Work and Pensions.

--------------------

The National Archives

Some departments made more than one suchapplication during the period. Generally, aperiod of one or two years was sought. In asmall number of cases, three to seven years
was requested.
The outcome of these applications was asfollows:■

For 37 of these requests, the Council wascontent to recommend to the Secretaryof State that permission be given to therelevant organisation to retain its legacy
records for the period requested■

In five cases, the recommendation wasthat the department be granted a lesser
retention period than requested■

In three cases, the organisations wereasked to attend the relevant Council
meeting in person to provide a moredetailed justification and timetable before
a recommendation to the Secretary ofState could be made■In the remaining cases, the Council wascontent to recommend to the Secretaryof State that permission be given to therelevant organisation to retain its legacy
records for the period requested, but
asked for written updates to be provided,
to ensure that departmental records
management projects remained on track.

The Council also considered papers updating
it on progress in reviewing records fortransfer to The National Archives from theHome Office; Ministry of Defence; Ministryof Justice; Ministry of Housing, Communities
and Local Government; Metropolitan Police;
HM Treasury; HM Revenue and Customs;
Department for Education; Animal & Plant
Health Agency; Competition and Markets
Authority; Historic England; British Library;Cabinet Office; Department for Transport;

Annual Report and Accounts 2020-21

Foreign Commonwealth and Development
Office; Crown Prosecution Service; Medicinesand Healthcare products Regulatory Agency;
Civil Aviation Authority; Tate; and the Office for
National Statistics.
FOI panels
The Council acts on behalf of the Secretaryof State, to consider the balance of the public
interest in the release or non-disclosure of
information contained in transferred historical
records that engage qualified exemptions(only), when an application has been made to
The National Archives under section 66 of FOIA
for the disclosure of information held by it. The
Council exercises this responsibility throughthe convening of panels of three members toconsider up to 20 requests at a time.
Metrics
During the financial year 2020-21, 26 panels
were convened, with 277 cases being
considered. Panels substantively challenged
33 of these, or 11.9 per cent of the total. This
compared to 514 cases in 2019-20, where
62 cases were substantively challenged,
equivalent to 12 per cent of the total. This
reduction in cases considered in the last year
has principally been due to the impact of
COVID-19 on FOI requests.
Having been provided with more detail, in
most cases the panels were able to accept
departments’ arguments for continuing to apply
public interest based exemptions. As a result of
this, three records were opened in full.
■

Overall, sections 27 (international relations)and 38 of FOIA (health and safety) wereboth the most challenged exemptions, andthe most frequently applied for.

■

There were a number of questions fromCouncil members on the passage of timeand its impact on the applicability of115---------------------

The National Archives

exemptions.
■

Last year, Council regularly reiterated
the importance of quality assurance toapplications for clarity to ensure cases
are progressed as swiftly as possible, andimprovements have been seen this year.

Process
The FOI panel process is explained in moredetail in Appendix D. As in previous years, themajority of FOI requests for closed records
sought access to criminal case files, usuallyrelating to historic murder cases. In these
instances, the Council is typically called upon
to balance the public interest in release against
the potential distress which might be caused
to victims or their relatives, or (in the case ofunsolved crimes) to the risk to the successfulprosecution of perpetrators in the future.
Other issues
As part of the Council’s broader advisory remit
with regard to The National Archives, theCouncil received regular quarterly reports fromthe Chief Executive and Keeper with regard toissues facing The National Archives and about its
activities. These reports have been reviewed by
the Council at its quarterly meetings.
This year, the Council also received regularquarterly updates on the impact of COVID-19
on departments’ ability to comply with the 20year rule and continues to monitor the impactof this.
Part Three – The Forum on Historical
Manuscripts and Academic Research
Background
The Forum, in its capacity as a sub-committeeof the Council, provides a means throughwhich the Chief Executive of The National
Archives, in his capacity as Historical
Manuscripts Commissioner, can seek advice
on historical manuscripts in independent (i.e.
116

Annual Report and Accounts 2020-21

non-governmental) archives. It also facilitates
discussion of academic research issues andprogrammes managed by The National
Archives.
Membership
The Forum is chaired by the Master of theRolls. Ms Hillary Bauer, OBE currently acts as
Deputy Chair.
Four other members of the Council, all ofwhom have expertise in academic research
and/or knowledge and experience of privatearchives, and two independent members
currently serve as members of the Forum.
Meetings
Meetings of the Forum are attended bymembers and by the Chief Executive andKeeper and other staff from The National
Archives.
The Forum met four times during the period
covered by this report, in July, September andDecember 2020 and in March 2021. It expects
to hold at least three meetings during 2021-22.
During the reporting period, the Forum has
focused on:■

discussing and advising on The National
Archives’ research funding landscape,particularly on measuring success andworking with the research community■

discussing and advising The National
Archives on its Archives Unlocked Action Plan■

discussing and advising on the work of the
Research and Academic Engagement andthe Archive Sector Development teams at
The National Archives■

considering the issue of valuation of digitalarchives for the Government’s Acceptancein Lieu scheme--------------------

The National Archives■

assessing members’ current skill level
through a skills audit and highlighting areas
for future focus in membership■advising and assisting The National
Archives regarding the events surrounding
the 2022 Manorial Documents Centenary
Programme■

investigating the relationship between the
Forum, the Advisory Council, The National
Archives and public record keeping by
Arm’s Length Bodies and Places of Deposit.

Most importantly, Forum members havecontinued to support sector leadership
throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, in what
has been a challenging year for many archives.
Nominated members of the Forum sat on theassessment panel of the COVID-19 Archives
Fund to advise and results of the Fund werereported back to the Forum. This has beenalongside general engagement on this matter
throughout the year with The National
Archives.

Annual Report and Accounts 2020-21

cases dealing with the acceptance by theGovernment of private archives in lieu of thepayment of a tax liability under the provisionsof the Inheritance Tax Act 1984.
Part Four – Looking Ahead
Looking ahead to 2021-22, the biggest
challenge will be the continuing impactof the COVID-19 pandemic on the end-toend process of selecting, reviewing, andtransferring records to The National Archives.
Whilst the Government’s roadmap out oflockdown continues to progress, the longerterm impacts of the pandemic continue
to affect and constrain departments. The
Council stands ready to play its part throughbeing flexible and innovative in enabling
this important activity to continue as far as
possible.
The Right Honourable Sir Geoffrey Vos
The Master of the Rolls
8 July 2021

Other businessIn addition, the Forum has considered three117---------------------

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Annual Report and Accounts 2020-21

Appendix A – The Remit of the Council and the Forum
Part One – The Council
Background
The Advisory Council on National Records andArchives was established by the Public Records
Act 1958 (‘PRA’) and is a non-departmental
public body. It is chaired by the Master of theRolls, The Right Honourable Sir Geoffrey Vos,
who was appointed with effect from 11 January
2020.
The role of the Council
The Council is to consider and advise on
matters including:
■

■

■

■

applications from departments for theretention within those departments ofpublic records beyond the age of 20
years, when those selected for permanent
preservation are normally transferred to
The National Archives
the balance of the public interest in relation
to applications from departments forthe extended closure of historical publicrecords and other “matters relating to theapplication of the Freedom of Information
Act 2000 (‘FOI Act’) to information
contained in public records that are
historical records within the meaning ofPart VI of that Act”
the balance of the public interest in therelease or non-disclosure of historical
records, an application for the disclosure ofwhich has been made under the FOIA
the preservation of public records in placesof deposit and facilities for public access tothem.

Requests under FOIA in accordance withthe third bullet point are dealt with throughthe FOI panel process, which is described inAppendix D.
118

In addition, the Council may be required toadvise on:■

major objectives, programmes and policychanges for The National Archives■

proposed legislation affecting The National
Archives■

the implications for records and public
services of any proposed change to thestatus of The National Archives■

any subject brought to its attention by the
Secretary of State.

As its name suggests, the Council’s role isadvisory. Accordingly, the Council does not:■make the final decision as to:◦when they become historical, records
are transferred to The National
Archives closed; nor◦when a closed record is reviewed after
transfer, it should remain closed asthese decisions lie with the department
whose records they are■

make the final decision on whether arecord can be retained by a department.
This decision is made by the Secretary ofState for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport■advise on departments’ retention ofrecords under the Security and Retention
Instrument 2011■

review departments’ decisions on theselection of their records for permanent
preservation

This falls under the remit of the Keeper of
Public Records.

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The National Archives

Part Two – The ForumThe Council’s responsibility relating tohistorical manuscripts (private archives)is discharged through the work of its
sub-committee, the Forum on Historical
Manuscripts and Academic Research. The
Forum advises the Keeper of Public Records
in his capacity as Historical Manuscripts
Commissioner. The Forum considers andprovides advice to the Secretary of Statethrough the Council on matters relating tomanuscripts, records and archives, other thanpublic records, and particularly:■

the location, collection, care, custody,
preservation, acquisition, sale, and use in
all formats of such documents■

the compilation and dissemination of
information about them■any questions affecting such documents
as may be referred for its consideration,
including issues relating to the statutory
duties of the Master of the Rolls in respect

Annual Report and Accounts 2020-21

of manorial and tithe documents, andthe making of recommendations to Arts
Council England on the allocation ofarchives and manuscripts accepted for thenation in lieu of tax■

other issues that would formerly havecome within the terms of reference of
the Royal Commission on Historical
Manuscripts.

In addition, on behalf of the Council, theForum is to:■act as a vehicle for the development ofconstructive and collaborative engagement
between The National Archives and its
academic stakeholders, sharing knowledge
and developing trust and understanding■

provide an open, independent andauthoritative advisory voice to The National
Archives, to support its research andacademic liaison.

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Annual Report and Accounts 2020-21

Appendix B – MembershipPart One – The Council
The Master of the Rolls chairs the Advisory
Council. The Master of the Rolls was originallyresponsible for the safe keeping of charters,
patents and records of important court
judgments. Today they are President of the
Court of Appeal (Civil Division) and Head ofCivil Justice. The present Master of the Rolls is
the Right Honourable Sir Geoffrey Vos.
The current members of the Council are:
Mr Trevor Woolley CB, Deputy Chair of theCouncil. Non-executive director, the Oil andPipeline Agency, former Director General of
Finance, Ministry of Defence
Lady Moira Andrews, Director, Praetor Legal
Ltd, ADS Group Ltd and Digi2al Ltd; Visiting
Professor, King’s College London; former
Government Legal Adviser
Ms Hillary Bauer, OBE, adviser on culture
and heritage issues; Board Member of TownerGallery Eastbourne and of Ben Uri Museum
and Gallery; Trustee of the Worshipful
Company of Arts Scholars
Ms Liz Copper, BBC Senior Broadcast
Journalist
Ms Lesley Ferguson, Head of Archives andEngagement, Historic Environment Scotland
Dr Helen Forde, historian and archivist;
formerly board member of the Museums andLibraries Association.
Dr Peter Gooderham, CMG, former
Ambassador to the UN and WTO in Geneva
Mr Michael Smyth CBE QC (Hon), Senior
Independent Director Legal Services Board andChairman Glastry Advisory Partners; former
Head of Government Practice, Clifford Chance120

Dr Jeannette Strickland, independent archiveand records consultant; formerly Head of Art,
Archives and Records Management, Unilever;Research Fellow, University of Liverpool
Mr John Wood, solicitor; formerly Advisory
Committee on Business Appointments(ACOBA) Independent Member; formerly
Charity Commission for England and Wales
Legal Board Member and Board Consultant;formerly Herbert Smith Freehills, Partner, thenConsultant
Mr Stephen Hawker, a former senior security
and intelligence official; independent memberof the Audit Committee of Manchester
Metropolitan University
Mr Martin Howard CB, retired senior security
official specialising in cyber and intelligence
security policy and operations. Appointed
Companion of the BathProfessor Phillip Johnson, barrister; Professorof Commercial Law at Cardiff University;
published numerous books and articles on law
and legal political history
Professor Leon Litvack, Professor of VictorianStudies at the Queen’s University of Belfast;
specialist on Charles Dickens; board memberof the Charles Dickens Museum; board
member of National Museums Northern
Ireland; freelance broadcaster for the BBC
Ms Helene Pantelli, solicitor specialising incommercial law; ombudsman at the Financial
Ombudsman
Mr David Rossington CB, former civil servant;Vice Chair and Treasurer of Stoll; Treasurerof the Oxfordshire Community Foundation;
Treasurer of Arts at the Old Fire Station;
Trustee of UK Community Foundation--------------------

The National Archives

Mr Martin Uden, former Ambassador in
Seoul; International Partnerships Adviser atQueen Mary University of London; Trustee ofa Christian mission charity; Chairman of the
British Korean Society; President of the British
Korean War Veterans’ Society; publishedauthorThe Secretary to the Council is Isabel
Saunders.
Part Two – The ForumThe Master of the Rolls chairs the Forum.
Council members Ms Hillary Bauer, OBE (thecurrent Deputy Chair), Ms Lesley Ferguson,
Dr Helen Forde, Dr Jeannette Strickland andProfessor Leon Litvack sit on the Forum,
together with the following independent
members:

Annual Report and Accounts 2020-21

Preservation. She is a qualified archivist andhas extensive experience in archives andrecords information management in a variety
of sectors. She is a member of the Scottish
Catholic Heritage Commission
Ms Jenny Shaw, the Collections Development
Manager for the Wellcome Collection, where
she is responsible for setting the collecting
direction across formats, including archives.
She previously worked as an archivist at the
British Red Cross and BT Heritage
The Chief Executive of The National Archives
is also a member of the Forum, on an ex
officio basis, as the Historical Manuscripts
Commissioner.

Ms Adele Redhead, a lecturer at the
University of Glasgow, where she leads
the MSc in Information Management and121---------------------

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Annual Report and Accounts 2020-21

Appendix C – Metrics
Key statistics relating to applications
considered by the Council are set out below:■

The number of closure applications
submitted to the Council decreased thisyear to 5,481, compared with 5,778 in
2019-20 (and 5,843 in 2018-19). Around
47 per cent of these applications engaged
only absolute exemptions and so were
not subject to a public interest test. Of
these, the vast majority involved personal
information about private individuals;
personal information may be protectedfrom release by data protection legislation.
In considering applications to close records
to the public, the Council focuses on
those that invoke exemptions subject toa public interest test. The most common
exemptions claimed concern of damage
to international relations and risks to thehealth or safety of individuals■This year, the Council considered 804
retention applications, compared with 878
in 2019-20.

Closure and Retention of Records■ In 2020-21, 91,286 (2019-20: 72,899)
government records were accessioned at
The National Archives■

82,504 or 90.4% (2019-20: 60,707 or 83.3%)of these records were transferred open infull or partially closed and can be viewed
at The National Archives by any member ofthe public who has a reader’s ticket■

2,472 or 2.7% (2019-20: 6,923 or 9.5%) of
these records were transferred closed,
after departmental applications to do so
had been scrutinised by the Council■

1,820 or 2% (2019-20: 5,197 or 7.1%) of
these records were retained in full by therelevant department■

The remaining 31 were transferred as‘number not used’. (NB: This tag is used
where a gap is identified in The National
Archives’ sequential catalogue numberingsystem. This might occur if, for example,
a duplicate record is discovered. To avoid
a laborious renumbering process, therelevant record number is shown in the
catalogue as ‘unused’.)122

Applications considered
Overall, there was a decrease of 6 per cent in
the number of closure applications comparedwith 2019-20, but this still represents anincrease of 28 per cent on 2014-15.
The following table sets out key metrics for
2019-2020, as compared with previous years:--------------------

The National Archives

Closureapplications

Annual Report and Accounts 2020-21

2014-152015-16

2016-172017-18

2018-192019-20

2020-21*

Applications
considered

4,250

4,435

4,290

5,974

5,843

5,778

5,481

Applications
queried

181

480

410**

387

487

952

Applications
whereclarification
was received
and accepted

105

340

122

(157+1+4
recalculated)

194

433

Applications
that wereamended bydepartments
and accepted

67

126

Applications
withdrawnbydepartments
following
challenge by
the Council

9

14

465**
(510**)

173
(232)

247
(218)

44
(34)

Outstanding closure
applications at March 2020*

Retention
applications

Applications
considered

793

952

Applications
queried28

44

Applications
whereclarification
was received
and accepted21

28

Applications
that wereamended bydepartments
and accepted

412Applications
withdrawnbydepartments
following
challenge by
the Council

3

4

Outstanding retention
applications at March 2020*

986
108
(116)

39
(41)

57½
(39)

11½
(26)

162

209 ½***

208(183+24,+1
recalculated)

173

298

32½ (31½+1
outstandingquery
withdrawn)

17 (13+4)

23

158

0 (1
resolved)

0 (37 butrecalculated
as 29 entries
on theproforma, allresolved)

97

63

1,432

970

878

804

125

52

76

68

32

20

25

27

79

25 (19+6)

18

16

5

10

28

15

14

6
(4+2)

1 (9-8resolved)

123---------------------

The National Archives*A number of queried cases remainedunresolved at the end of the period coveredby this report and will be carried forward. At
the same time, the unresolved queries fromthe previous period have been included in thisreport.
**One application for 2016-17 was resolved by
the minister for the department, following anunresolved disagreement between the Council
and the department. There were 46 closure
applications queried in 2017-18 that were
not resolved through the query process but
resubmitted on a new schedule.

Annual Report and Accounts 2020-21***The figure of ½ referred to reflects thefact that the relevant application covered tworecords and the application in respect of oneof these was withdrawn.
[Note: Responses to the resolves outstandingin 2017-18 and 2018-19 are in brackets andunderlined. The first number in the bracket
refers to that shown last year.
2016-17 and 2018-19 figures have beenrecalculated as some discrepancies had
occurred.]

Appendix D – the FOI panel process
The Council’s FOI panel process
The Council is responsible for advising theSecretary of State on the application of theFreedom of Information Act 2000 (‘FOIA’) tohistorical public records.
Records retained by departments and those
closed at transfer to The National Archives
remain subject to the FOIA and individuals canmake a request under FOIA (an ‘FOI request’)to have access to them.
When The National Archives receives a FOI
request for access to closed information heldby it, it follows the procedure set out in Part
VI of FOIA. Under these provisions, before arequest can be refused on the grounds of aqualified exemption, the Secretary of State
must be consulted. The Council will assess the
public interest test, which is necessary before
such an exemption can be applied. This test
is applied to determine, whether, in all thecircumstances of the case, the public interest
in disclosure is outweighed by the public
interest in refusing access to the information in
the record.

124

For this purpose, panels of three Council
members are convened to consider the public
interest in the release or non-disclosure of therequested information. (The Council has noadvisory role when a request is to be refused
citing only absolute exemptions.)
In most cases, the FOI request concerns
information closed at transfer on the grounds
that it was information:■

that, if released, would endanger thesafety or physical or mental health of anindividual■

that, if released, would damage
international relations■

relating to law enforcement.

Cases are carefully scrutinised and debatedby panels on the basis of a fresh assessmentby the department of the arguments for andagainst disclosure, taking account of any
change in circumstances since the accessstatus of the record was last considered.
If they consider it necessary, panel members--------------------

The National Archives

Annual Report and Accounts 2020-21

will request further detail or clarification fromthe relevant department or The National
Archives. Even where they are in agreementthat the public interest in closure outweighs
the public interest in applying the exemption,members of the panel may also raise
concerns about departmental practices anddraw attention to inconsistencies between
departments in their handling of FOI requests.

125---------------------

The National Archives

Annual Report and Accounts 2020-21

Annex C
Annual Report of the Independent Complaints Reviewer 2020-21
In April 2018, The National Archives appointed
ch&i associates to act as its Independent
Complaints Reviewer (ICR). We are delighted topresent our third annual report as ICR for The
National Archives.
The ICR service is free to complainants andoffers an independent review of complaints
that The National Archives has been unable toresolve itself. Our role is:■

To provide judgements as to whether
The National Archives has provided goodor reasonable service consistent with its
policies and procedures and in line with its
stated standards and practices and otherwidely accepted principles of good practice■

To determine whether there have been any
deficiencies in the service provided to thecustomer (whether constituting, or fallingshort of, maladministration) that call for
attention■

To recommend proportionate and fitting
remedies where service standards havefallen below an acceptable standard.

ch&i associates is run by Jon Wigmore andAlex Oram, both of whom have extensive
experience of complaint handling andinvestigations. They currently also act as theICR (or equivalent) for other bodies, including
the Department for Transport, the General
Medical Council and the Public Services
Ombudsman for Wales.
Overview of complaint activity and
The National Archives’ learning fromcomplaints and customer feedback
The National Archives sets itself high service
delivery standards and has an ambitious
126

complaints process that aims to ensure that
customer feedback, however defined andexpressed, improves service delivery, and puts
things right for people. The National Archives’commitments and principles here are spelled
out in its ‘Policy for handling comments andcomplaints’. This emphasises simplicity ofaccess, clarity, timeliness, and fairness.
At the end of 2019-20, we were pleased toreport that the number of complaints recordedby The National Archives had reduced from 56
to 30. In the year since, complaints have risen
to 83. This is still a remarkably low number
when set in the context of The National
Archives’ relatively high level of transactions;in the last year, these included 29,960 writtenenquires and 18,136 contacts via the online
chat function. Indeed, such low numbers
would instinctively cause us to have concerns
about how customers are signposted to theircomplaints process and how easy The National
Archives make it for them to make a complaint.
Having conducted a thorough review of The
National Archives’ complaint handling function
in 2019 though, we are confident that theyplace a high value on customer feedback andthat the relatively low number of complaints is
a result of their commitment to getting it rightfirst time.
It is impossible to talk about the last year
without talking about the impact of thepandemic. The National Archives noticed at
an early stage that the upturn in complaints
almost exclusively related to changes
that had been brought in to manage theservice within the confines of the COVID-19
lockdown restrictions. The fact that only alimited number of people a day could access--------------------

The National Archives

records on site and the quarantining of those
documents for three days either side of being
accessed caused understandable frustrations.
Lessons quickly learned, which included
the introduction of new ways of working toincrease capacity and changes to the booking
process, saw a relatively large reduction in
negative feedback from November 2020
onwards.
Despite the upturn in complaints and theimpact of the lockdown restrictions on thestaff tasked with dealing with them, thenumber of complainants who asked us to
independently review The National Archives
handling of their complaint did not rise. As we

Annual Report and Accounts 2020-21

approach the end of our third year in the roleof ICR, only two complainants have asked for
an ICR review. The one review request that
we received during 2020-21 did not in fact
concern a service that The National Archives
is responsible for delivering, but rather theiruse of a logo that they are required to use
by HM Government. Indeed, we would haveoffered no criticism had The National Archives
deemed this complaint to have been outside of
the scope of their complaint process from theoutset. The National Archives’ determination toassist the complainant regardless is testament
to their ‘customer first’ approach.

Contact the ICR
Details of the ICR service can be found athttps://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/contactus/complaints-procedure/
ch&i associates ltd
64 Plumstead Road
Norwich
NR1 4JU
Telephone number: +44 (0)330 133 1492
Email: enquiries@chi-assoc.com

127---------------------

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Annual Report and Accounts 2020-21

Appendix of Local places of deposit who received New Burdens
Funding 2020-21
Berkshire Record OfficeNorthumberland Archives

Cambridgeshire ArchivesOxfordshire History Centre

Cheshire Archives & Local Studies

Surrey History Centre

Cumbria Archive Service (all)

Devon Heritage CentreWest Sussex Record Office

Dorset History Centre

Wiltshire and Swindon Archives

Durham County Record OfficeGloucestershire Archives

Barnsley Archive and Local Studies
Department

Worcestershire Archive and Archaeology
ServiceSheffield City Archives
West Yorkshire Archive ServiceKent History and Library Centre

Lancashire Archives

North East Wales Archives (NEWA),
Flintshire Record Office

London Metropolitan Archives: City of
LondonNorth East Wales Archives (NEWA)
Denbighshire ArchivesManchester Archives and Local Studies


Glamorgan Archives

Wigan Archives and Local Studies
West Glamorgan Archive ServiceLiverpool Record Office

Gwent Archives



Sandwell Community History and Archives
ServiceNorthamptonshire Archives

North Devon Record Office (South West
Heritage Trust)128--------------------CCS0521505942
978-1-5286-2613-2