The Public Record Office (Fees) Regulations 2025
Source: legislation.gov.uk (2025-12-01)

These Regulations prescribe the fees to be charged for authenticated copies or extracts from records under the charge of the Keeper of Public Records and for other services afforded by officers of the Public Record Office, which exercises its functions as part of The National Archives. The fees prescribed in the Schedule to the Regulations are exclusive of value added tax.

Statutory Instruments

2025 No. 1243

Public Records

The Public Record Office (Fees) Regulations 2025

Made

26th November 2025

Coming into force

2nd February 2026

The Secretary of State makes these Regulations with the concurrence of the Treasury in exercise of the powers conferred by section 2(5) of the Public Records Act 1958(1 (\"#f00001\")).

Citation, commencement and extent

1.—(1) These Regulations may be cited as the Public Record Office (Fees) Regulations 2025 and come into force on 2nd February 2026.

(2) These Regulations extend to England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Interpretation

2.—(1) The services specified in paragraphs 1 and 5(a) of the Schedule are available only in relation to records—

(a)which concern—

(i)an individual who served as a member of the regular army, the Regular Reserve or the Army Reserve(2 (\"#f00002\")), of or below the rank of warrant officer, or

(ii)an individual who served as a member of any of His Majesty’s air forces, and

(b)which were transferred to The National Archives on or after 1st February 2021 by or on behalf of the Ministry of Defence.

(2) In these Regulations—

“key military service personnel documents” means the following documents within an individual’s military service personnel record—

(a)

any documents created upon that individual’s initial recruitment or their transfer between units, including their postings whilst in military service, and

(b)

any other documents, the principal purpose of which is to record the conduct or promotion of that individual whilst in military service;

“military service personnel records” means any records which—

(a)

concern individuals who served in the regular forces or the reserve forces, and

(b)

were created by or on behalf of any of the regular forces or the reserve forces.

(3) In this regulation, the following terms have the meaning given by section 374 of the Armed Forces Act 2006(3 (\"#f00003\"))—

(a)in paragraph (1)(a)(i), “the regular army”;

(b)in the definition of “military service personnel records” in paragraph (2), “the regular forces” and “the reserve forces”.

Fees

3.—(1) Subject to paragraph (3), the fees to be charged for authenticated copies or extracts from records under the charge of the Keeper of Public Records and for other services afforded by officers of the Public Record Office are to be determined in accordance with the provisions of the Schedule.

(2) In the Schedule—

(a)where a fee is prescribed by reference to a period of time, the whole fee is payable in respect of a partially completed period;

(b)where a fee is prescribed for a copy of an image by reference to a specified size, the size is that of the image to be copied and not that of the copy;

(c)where a fee is prescribed for a copy or photograph of a page of a record, the fee is payable for a copy or photograph of each side of a page which forms a record or part of a record;

(d)all fees are exclusive of value added tax.

(3) The Keeper of Public Records may remit all or part of a fee—

(a)where, in their opinion, the service performed or to be performed is, or is likely to be, exceptionally simple,

(b)where, in their opinion, the fee was charged in error, or

(c)where a person paid the fee for one of the following services specified in the Schedule—

(i)the copying of key military service personnel documents (paragraph 1(a) or (b)), or

(ii)a page check (paragraph 4),

but no relevant records were found during the related search.

Revocation

4. The Public Record Office (Fees) Regulations 2018(4 (\"#f00004\")) are revoked.

Twycross

Parliamentary Under Secretary of State

Department for Culture, Media and Sport

25th November 2025

We concur.

Lilian Greenwood

Christian Wakeford

Two of the Lords Commissioners of His Majesty’s Treasury

26th November 2025

Regulation 3

SCHEDULEFEES FOR SERVICES PROVIDED

Key military service personnel documents

1. In relation to key military service personnel documents—

(a)the fee for undertaking a search for and making a colour digital copy of research quality of the key military service personnel documents for an individual is £42.25 (the combined fee representing £38.95 for the search and £3.30 for the digital copies);

(b)the fee for undertaking a search for and making a colour paper copy of research quality of the key military service personnel documents for an individual is £47.16 (the combined fee representing £38.95 for the search, and £8.21 for the paper copies (not including postage and packaging)).

Search

2. For undertaking a search (other than a search for key military service personnel documents as per paragraph 1(a) or (b)) to establish whether information or a relevant record is held, the fee for each 15 minutes expended is £38.95.

Authenticated copies of naturalisation certificates

3. The fee for making a copy of a naturalisation certificate that is a record and authenticating that copy by certification is £68.84.

Page check

4. The fee (per record) for carrying out a page check in order to supply an accurate quotation based on the number of pages involved is £9.92.

Other copies of records

5. Where a person requests any number of copies or photographs—

(a)in relation to military service personnel records—

(i)the fee for making a colour digital copy of research quality of a page of the military service personnel record for an individual is £1.04;

(ii)the fee for making a colour paper copy of research quality of a page of the military service personnel record for an individual is £1.89;

(b)for making a colour digital copy of research quality of a page of any other record—

(i)up to and including size A3, the fee is £1.52;

(ii)larger than size A3, the fee is £11.95;

(c)for making a colour paper copy of research quality of a page of any other record—

(i)up to and including size A3, the fee is £7.40;

(ii)larger than size A3, the fee is £17.71.

Authentication of other copies

6. The fee for authenticating a paper copy of a record or any part of a record (other than a naturalisation certificate) by certification (excluding the fee for making the copy) is £23.25.

Postage and packaging

7. The fee for postage and packaging for a copy not collected in person by the requester which cannot be sent by e-mail, or which the requester asks to be sent by post, is equal to the actual cost of postage and packaging.

EXPLANATORY NOTE

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

These Regulations prescribe the fees to be charged for authenticated copies or extracts from records under the charge of the Keeper of Public Records and for other services afforded by officers of the Public Record Office, which exercises its functions as part of The National Archives. The fees prescribed in the Schedule to the Regulations are exclusive of value added tax.

These Regulations revoke and replace the Public Record Office (Fees) Regulations 2018 (S.I. 2018/1420 (\"http://www.legislation.gov.uk/id/uksi/2018/1420\"), “the 2018 Regulations”). Some fees payable under the 2018 Regulations are no longer charged, including fees relating to loans (preparation of records for external exhibitions).

Where a fee prescribed in the Schedule was also prescribed by the 2018 Regulations, the rate for each such fee has been increased, as follows—

The fee for a search (paragraph 2) is increased from £24.35 to £38.95;

The fee for copying and authenticating a naturalisation certificate (paragraph 3) is increased from £27.15 to £68.84;

The fee for a page check (per record) (paragraph 4) is increased from £8.40 to £9.92;

The fee for a colour digital copy of a page of a record (other than a military service personnel record) up to and including size A3 (paragraph 5(b)(i)) is increased from £1.20 to £1.52;

The fee for a colour digital copy of a page of a record (other than a military service personnel record) larger than size A3 (paragraph 5(b)(ii)) is increased from £8.45 to £11.95;

The fee for a colour paper copy of a page of a record (other than a military service personnel record) up to and including size A3 (paragraph 5(c)(i)) is increased from £4.95 to £7.40;

The fee for a colour paper copy of a page of a record (other than a military service personnel record) larger than size A3 (paragraph 5(c)(ii)) is increased from £9.60 to £17.71;

The fee for authenticating a copy of, or part of, a record (other than a naturalisation certificate) (paragraph 6) is increased from £19.80 to £23.25.

The new fees introduced for services provided in respect of certain military service personnel records for the Royal Air Force, and for members of the regular and reserve army of or below the rank of warrant officer, relate to an ongoing project which started in 2021 to transfer around 10 million records from the Ministry of Defence to The National Archives in line with the Public Records Act 1958. These services are designed to satisfy the significant and challenging level of demand for access to such records more quickly. The National Archives provides support to requestors at all stages to determine whether their search falls within the scope of these services.

A full impact assessment has not been produced for this instrument as no, or no significant, impact on the private, voluntary or public sector is foreseen.

(1)

1958 c. 51 (\"http://www.legislation.gov.uk/id/ukpga/1958/51\"); section 2 was amended by S.I. 2015/1897 (\"http://www.legislation.gov.uk/id/uksi/2015/1897\").

(2)

Section 44 of the Defence Reform Act 2014 (c. 20) (\"http://www.legislation.gov.uk/id/ukpga/2014/20\") renamed, for the purposes of specified enactments, the Army Reserve as the “Regular Reserve”, and the Territorial Army as the “Army Reserve”.

(3)

2006 c. 52 (\"http://www.legislation.gov.uk/id/ukpga/2006/52\"); the definitions of “the regular army” and “the reserve forces” were amended by section 44 of the Defence Reform Act 2014.

(4)

S.I. 2018/1420 (\"http://www.legislation.gov.uk/id/uksi/2018/1420\").