To date, 292 retention certificates have been made under the terms of section 8 (4) of the National Archives Act in respect of 3,991 files. The files thereby retained represent less than 1 per cent of the archival material transferred to the National Archives from Departments over the past year under the terms of the National Archives Act, 1986.
The files in question contain very little of archival value since the majority of them contain confidential, personal information on past and present public servants which, as provided for in the Act, should not be made available for public inspection in the National Archives. The balance would constitute files withheld as also provided for in the Act, on grounds of public interest, on grounds of breaching a statutory duty or good faith where information was supplied in confidence, or where the disclosure of information would or might cause distress or danger to living persons.