---
title: "Public Records Act 1967"
id: ccf2999e-c90e-4f94-a3bb-dc9aa114d5ff
authority: uk
place: "United Kingdom"
applies_also_from: []
kind: statute
in_force: true
publisher_url: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1967/44
attribution: "Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives."
solon_url: https://solon.orangecat.ch/law/ccf2999e-c90e-4f94-a3bb-dc9aa114d5ff
language: en
in_force_from: 1991-02-01
date_basis: publisher
status: consolidated
source_url: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1967/44/data.xml
read_on: 2026-11-08
sha256: 9d1925bcd1ae051e325e148154a6e4974447ef02a18fb6fbf6998be7a1972de2
provisions: 3
---

# Public Records Act 1967

## Title and introductory text {#prelims}

Public Records Act 1967
1967 c.44
An Act to reduce the period of fifty years specified in section 5(1) of the Public Records Act 1958 as that for which certain public records must have been in existence for them to be available for public inspection.
[14th July 1967]

## 1 Reduction of period for which certain public records must have been in existence for them to be available for public inspection . {#section-1}

In subsection (1) of section 5 of the Public Records Act 1958 (which provides that public records in the Public Record Office, with certain exceptions, shall not be available for public inspection until they have been in existence for fifty years or such other period as the Lord Chancellor may, in accordance with that subsection, prescribe as respects any particular class of public records) for the words “until they have been in existence for fifty years or such other period”, there shall be substituted the words. “ until the expiration of the period of thirty years beginning with the first day of January in the year next after that in which they were created, or of such other period ”

## 2 Short title and commencement. {#section-2}

(1) This Act may be cited as the Public Records Act 1967.
(2) This Act shall come into operation on 1st January 1968.