The Advisory Council on National Records and Archives (ACNRA) is a

United Kingdom government ga, Rialtas a Shoilse gd, Riaghaltas a Mhòrachd , image = HM Government logo.svg , image_size = 220px , image2 = Royal Coat of Arms of the United Kingdom (HM Government).svg , image_size2 = 180px , caption = Royal Arms , date_es ...

organization. The council advises the

Lord Chancellor The lord chancellor, formally the lord high chancellor of Great Britain, is the highest-ranking traditional minister among the Great Officers of State in Scotland and England in the United Kingdom, nominally outranking the prime minister. The ...

on issues around

public records Public records are documents or pieces of information that are not considered confidential and generally pertain to the conduct of government. For example, in California, when a couple fills out a marriage license application, they have the optio ...

over 20 years old, including public access to records when they're transferred to the National Archives. The council also advises on requests by government departments to keep hold of their records and on public interest issues when a department wants to keep their records closed. ACNRA is an advisory

non-departmental public body In the United Kingdom, non-departmental public body (NDPB) is a classification applied by the Cabinet Office, Treasury, the Scottish Government and the Northern Ireland Executive to public sector organisations that have a role in the process of n ...

, sponsored by the

Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport , type = Department , logo = Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport logo.svg , logo_width = , logo_caption = , seal = , seal_width = , seal_caption = , picture = Gove ...

. It was created in 2003, replacing the

Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts The Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts (widely known as the Historical Manuscripts Commission, and abbreviated as the HMC to distinguish it from the Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England), was a United Kingdom Royal Com ...

and the former advisory council of the

Public Record Office The Public Record Office (abbreviated as PRO, pronounced as three letters and referred to as ''the'' PRO), Chancery Lane in the City of London, was the guardian of the national archives of the United Kingdom from 1838 until 2003, when it was m ...

. It is chaired by the Master of the Rolls,

Sir Terence Etherton Terence Michael Elkan Barnet Etherton, Baron Etherton, (born 21 June 1951) is a British retired judge and member of the House of Lords. He was the Master of the Rolls and Head of Civil Justice from 2016 to 2021 and Chancellor of the High Court ...

, and has 15 members including historians, archivists, former civil servants and journalists. The Council says it's "...guiding principle is to support information being made public". In 2016 ANCRA considered 986 requests from Government departments to keep secret archives which were due to be released.

References

External links

The National Archives - Homepage
Non-departmental public bodies of the United Kingdom government {{UK-gov-stub