asked Her Majesty's Government:
What files were lost by the Big Lottery Fund in the fire at the paper records warehouse in Twelvetrees Crescent, London, in July; what impact these losses will have on the fund; whether any work or projects will be delayed or abandoned as a result of the fire; and what costs were incurred.[HL7906]
The Big Lottery Fund lost 1,196 boxes of files in the fire at the paper records warehouse in Twelvetrees Crescent. Files held in archive were closed grant files, rejected application forms and audited finance documents with no ongoing business need. They were being stored in off-site archives for the Big Lottery Fund's retention periods. The only impact that has been identified is that they will be unable to respond to freedom of information requests for documents that were destroyed. The Big Lottery Fund believes that enough information is held electronically that the impact of the loss of these files will be minimal. There is no indication that any projects will be delayed or abandoned as a result of the fire as only closed or rejected grant files are stored offsite. It is estimated that no costs will be incurred.
asked Her Majesty's Government:
What files were lost by the Medical Research Council in the fire at the paper records warehouse in Twelvetrees Crescent, London in July; what impact these losses will have on the council; whether any work or projects will be delayed or abandoned as a result of the fire; and what costs were incurred.[HL7908]
On 12 July 2006, a fire occurred at the Iron Mountain storage facility at Twelvetrees Crescent in London. The Medical Research Council (MRC) head office and a number of MRC units use Iron Mountain to store inactive files and material off-site. Twelvetrees Crescent is one of a number of Iron Mountain's storage facilities used by the MRC and only a fairly small proportion of the MRC's records were stored there.
The MRC lost records that had been created at its head office, the MRC prion unit, and the MRC national survey of health and development (NSHD). The head office records were a mixture of policy, administration, grant and transaction files. The records from the MRC prion unit contained the results of scientific research work conducted at a biological services facility that was closed down several years ago. The MRC NSHD material consisted of all the paper copies of information collected in 1989, paper copies from seven of the 13 data collections in the women's health study, and all the paper copies of data collected between birth (1946) and 1972 for 42 study members.
Some of the head office records were of relatively short-term significance: these would have been routinely destroyed in future by applying internal records management procedures. Others would have been kept for longer periods and their loss now is an inconvenience to the business: it will be necessary to reconstruct some information (such as formal correspondence trails for a number of patent files) from other sources. A smaller number of records were of archival value and would have been transferred to the National Archives.
The impact on the MRC prion unit of the loss of scientific research records is currently uncertain. Access has been lost to the MRC NSHD original questionnaires, although the primary data collected had been digitised. Consequently, new data cannot now be created from original sources and qualitative data cannot now be used.
No specific project has currently been delayed or abandoned. However, for the MRC NSHD, two existing projects may be restricted by the loss of original material.
MRC head office administrative costs have amounted to approximately £5,000, and the cost of reconstructing correspondence trails and other paperwork is estimated at a further several thousand pounds.
Neither the MRC prion unit or the NSHD have incurred direct financial costs.
asked Her Majesty's Government:
What files were lost by the Millennium Commission in the fire at the paper records warehouse in Twelvetrees Crescent, London, in July; what impact these losses will have on the commission; whether any work or projects will be affected, delayed or abandoned as a result of the fire; and what costs were incurred.[HL7950]
The Millennium Commission lost 509 of some 2,000 boxes of files at the paper records warehouse in Twelvetrees Crescent. The losses included documents that had been prepared for the National Archive and these have had to be reproduced, with associated additional staff costs. However, copies of all these documents exist in the commission's offices and this work is at hand.
The commission holds files in archives for three main purposes: to address statutory requirements for record retention; to address a potential business need related to the monitoring of lottery-funded assets and to reduce office costs by optimising storage. It is not possible to assess the impact of the loss of these records until a particular scenario arises which requires access to records that have been destroyed. Some of the records lost in the fire were scheduled for destruction at the end of the commission's life, currently expected before the end of 2006.
None of the commission's other work or construction projects has been affected or delayed by these losses.
asked Her Majesty's Government:
What files were lost by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs in the fire at the paper records warehouse in Twelvetrees Crescent, London, in July; what impact these losses will have on the department; whether any work or projects will be affected, delayed or abandoned as a result of the fire; and what costs were incurred.[HL7955]
The fire at Iron Mountain's “Cody 5” facility in east London had virtually no impact upon Defra's record. Only 12 files were destroyed, which were of a purely administrative nature, with little ongoing business value. No projects were cancelled or otherwise interrupted. The department has incurred no additional costs.