28 September 2005
LORD ADVOCATE LIFTS 100 YEAR ORDER ON DUNBLANE PAPERS
The Lord Advocate, Colin Boyd, QC, today announced that documents submitted to the Dunblane Inquiry in 1996, and subsequently placed under a 100 year Closure Order, will be available for inspection by members of the public, in a redacted form, at the National Archives of Scotland from Monday 3 October 2005.
This announcement delivers on a commitment made by the Lord Advocate in March 2003 to review the material under the 100 year order and determine which, if any, of the documents could be released to the public.
Mr Boyd said:
"It is clear that there remains considerable public interest in the evidence that was provided to Lord Cullen's inquiry, and I am pleased to announce that we have now completed the review of the papers subject to the 100-year Closure Order.
"This was always going to be a lengthy process because of the volume of printed documents which had to be carefully and individually examined. All names or other information which would lead to identification of individuals had to be removed from each document to protect the families involved, and to comply with data protection.
"There remain some documents which it is still not possible to make public, because even in an edited form they contain material which is sensitive in nature and could cause further anguish to the families of victims."
The Closure Order remains in place for the specified 100 years in respect of files 1 to 4. These files contain details of the individual victims, including personal profiles, photographs, medical reports, and post mortem reports.
All of the other documents submitted to the Inquiry will be made available to the public, at the National Archive of Scotland, in their redacted form.
The position of the families, who have always been able to view the full documents, is unaffected by this move.
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