Secret papers could be released after 15 years
By politics.co.uk staff
Secret government papers could be released after 15 years, rather than the current 30, under proposals being considered by ministers.
The plan forms the backbone of an independent review into the subject headed by Daily Mail editor Paul Dacre.
The change would be implemented by releasing the records for two years annually, so that next year would see records for 1979 and 1980 put into the public domain.
The reform, which the government is under no obligation to accept, would allow the public to see secret files related to the Falklands war far earlier than would otherwise have been the case.
Historian professor Sir David Cannadine and Sir Joseph Pilling, former permanent secretary at the Northern Ireland Office, were also on the panel.
