Government Documents Accessible on NAS Archives Online

4 Mr Leon Perera asked the Minister for Communications and Information (a) what proportion of Government documents that are more than 25 years old and hence are part of the public archives are contained in the publicly accessible NAS Archives Online; and (b) what proportion of Government documents declassified each year for the past five years have become part of the publicly accessible NAS Archives Online.

The Senior Minister of State for Communications and Information (Ms Sim Ann) (for the Minister for Communications and Information): Currently, the National Archives of Singapore (NAS) has about 2 million Government records in its custody that are more than 25 years old and are deemed as public archives. Not all Government records can be released for open access, especially those that relate to our national defence, foreign relations and internal security, as well as documents which may be bound by confidentiality obligations or personal privacy reasons.

At present, the metadata of 160,000 records are publicly accessible on the NAS Archives Online portal. This number will grow as we work with Government agencies to progressively declassify Government records. All declassified records are publicly searchable on the Online portal.

Mr Leon Perera (Non-Constituency Member): I thank the Senior Minister of State for her answer. Just a few supplementary questions. Firstly, when records that are declassified – and here, I am also referring to the answer that the Senior Minister of State gave previously to a Parliamentary Question by Mr Kok Heng Leun and that was also helpful – and released into the NAS, I understand the agencies would have already gone through a process to make sure that they can be released into the NAS, as opposed to there being sensitive information that would prohibit that. So, when the record is already on the NAS, I would like to ask if the Government can consider making it available to everyone on the NAS Online. I understand right now that there are still some conditions or restrictions. People have to write in, people have to seek approval. That approval is sometimes conditionally given on the basis of whether they are using it for research, on the basis of whether they are publishing it or just using it for personal reference. Can documents that have already been declassified – presumably, those sensitivities are not there or there has been redaction – can those be made more freely available to everyone who would like to view it on the NAS Online?

My second supplementary question relates to a time frame. I believe that after 25 years, these documents are released and they go through a process of review for whether they can be released. At the point of 25 years, there could be certain personal sensitivities, confidentiality obligations but is there a process to review documents further down the line? Because those personal sensitivities may not be there, say 50 years, down the line. Is there a process to review documents which have been held back from the NAS Online, but perhaps, if there were reviewed again further down the line, they could be released, say, in 50 years' time?

My last supplementary question is on the definition of researcher. I think some of the access is given on the basis of whether you are doing research, whether you are a researcher. I would like to ask what is the operating definition of that? Does one have to be a faculty member in a relevant discipline at a university or can one be, for example, a private citizen, who has an interest in the matter who wishes to write a book on the matter? Can one be an undergraduate or a graduate student? What is the operating definition of "researcher" that is used to give access in cases where access is given only for research purposes?

Ms Sim Ann: I thank the Member for his supplementary questions. First, to the question about – if I understand it correctly – he is referring to whether more declassified documents can be made viewable to everyone on the online portal. In fact, on the online portal, if you do a search, you will find that there are quite a number of documents there that are already viewable in full and they can also be seen in PDF form. Our intention is to make more of these available.

To the Member's question on time frame, if I understand him correctly, what he means is that: for even older documents, will there be a review process to look at those that have not at first been deemed suitable for public access and then to re-look at them again. I should explain to the Member that our priority is to declassify – I have shared the numbers just now. So, there is quite a lot of work to go through for the current number of records that are 25 years and older. I think, we will take his suggestion into consideration but really, the priority is to declassify as many documents as we can and to encourage our agencies to do so and to help us in doing that. In fact, we have in recent years, sent 750 officers from different Government agencies for basic declassification training in the hope that this will help more officers understand the importance of declassification, and to do it well and to do it quicker.

In terms of definition of researchers, this is based on our common understanding of what they do. This is also explained in our NLB Act.

Mr Leon Perera: I thank the Senior Minister of State for the answer. Just one supplementary question. In relation to my first supplementary question, actually my question was on those documents that have been declassified and released already on to the NAS Online. I think there are 160,000 of 2 million. For those documents that have already been declassified and already on the NAS Online platform, can they be made available more freely? Because, from what I understand, when you go online to this platform, you can view documents and if you click on it, you will not actually get the document. In some cases, you have to ask for written permission and in some cases, conditional permission is given. Not all the documents are actually made freely available on the NAS Online – there is 160,000 or so - without conditions to everyone who just wants to access it online. So, can that be considered?

Ms Sim Ann: Sir, to answer the Member, we hope to make as many documents and records publicly viewable and also searchable as possible. So, all this is on-going work. Also, to add on to my reply to his earlier question, Members of the public can also make requests for these information and our National Archives staff will also facilitate.