Commissions of Investigation Act 2004

Availability of records for inspection by public under National Archives Act 1986.

41

41.—(1) Records of a commission that constitute Departmental records within the meaning of section 2(2) of the National Archives Act 1986 are, on the expiry of 30 years after the date of the commission's dissolution, deemed to have been prescribed under section 8(11) of that Act as a class of records to which a certificate granted under section 8(4) of that Act may relate.

(2) As soon as practicable after the date on which records of a commission are deemed to have been prescribed as described in subsection (1), an officer of a Department of State authorised for the purposes of section 8(4) of the National Archives Act 1986 shall consider whether, subject to any consent required under that section, the commission's records should be certified under that section.

(3) Subsections (1) and (2) apply whether the records concerned have been—

(a) deposited with the specified Minister under section 43(2),

(b) made available to a tribunal of inquiry under section 45, or

(c) transferred to a body on the dissolution of a tribunal of inquiry to which they were made available under section 45.

(4) Subject to this section, the National Archives Act 1986 applies to records of a commission that constitute Departmental records within the meaning of section 2(2) of that Act.