Standard Operating Procedure for Declassification of Government Documents

11 Mr Kok Heng Leun asked the Minister for Communications and Information what is the standard operating procedure for the declassification of Government documents.

The Senior Minister of State for Communications and Information (Ms Sim Ann) (for the Minister for Communications and Information): Mr Speaker, under the NLB Act, public records which are more than 25 years old become a part of the public archives. The National Archives facilitates the public's access to the archived government documents for the purpose of reference or research, subject to conditions or restrictions imposed by public agencies.

The standard operating procedure for the declassification of Government documents is as follows:

(a) The National Archives of Singapore (NAS) digitises Government documents in their existing formats, whether they are microfilm or paper records.

(b) NAS sends the digitised Government documents to the relevant agency for declassification.

(c) The agency will review the Government documents and decide if the documents can be released for viewing, citation and reproduction.

(d) During the review of documents, the agency will take into account national security concerns, confidentiality obligations and personal privacy considerations.

(e) If the documents can be released, their metadata will be made available through NAS' Archives Online, so that the documents can be made searchable.

Mr Kok Heng Leun (Nominated Member): I thank the Senior Minister of State for the reply. I have some supplementary questions. I think I ask this question in light of all the interest on history debate, and I have heard from historians that they would like to have more access. So, are there actually barriers for researchers to access this information? If there are, what are the kinds of barriers that come about?

Secondly, are these documents categorised in terms of sensitivities? So, for some that the agencies may think are sensitive at this moment, are there timelines to look at declassifying them?

Thirdly, would it be possible that instead of not allowing public access, some of the documents can be redacted, so that the sensitive parts can be covered up and then people can access it.

The last question: have all Government documents been passed to the National Archives over the years?

Ms Sim Ann: Sir, the answer to Mr Kok Heng Leun's supplementary questions, actually, the first three are all related. In terms of the researchers' request when they make a request to view documents, the public agencies that originated the documents will have to be consulted. The criteria I have talked about: these are to do with national security concerns, confidentiality obligations and personal privacy considerations. So, once these have been decided upon, then the documents can be declassified and then made available for public search and also made available to the researcher for reviewing and for study.

For his fourth question, as I have explained, the public records which are more than 25 years old become a part of the public archives. If the researchers go onto our NAS' archives online and they cannot find what they are looking for, they can make a request and the process of them contacting the agency and also seeking the agencies' views as to whether or not the various considerations used – security and privacy, and so forth – have been dealt with, will commence.

Mr Kok Heng Leun: I thank the Senior Minister of State for the reply. Can I check, is it true that certain documents would only be allowed for certain researchers to look through, that you actually do select researchers and not open to all researchers?

Ms Sim Ann: Mr Speaker, I do not know that to be true.

Mr Leon Perera (Non-Constituency Member): Would the Senior Minister of State be able to comment on roughly what proportion of documents actually make their way onto the NAS Online as opposed to documents that are withheld and are not available online, say, in the past five years?

Ms Sim Ann: Mr Speaker, Sir, the question was about standard operating procedures which I believe I have explained to the Member Mr Kok. I do not have the information that Mr Leon Perera has asked for.

Mr Pritam Singh (Aljunied): I thank the Senior Minister of State for sharing details of the SOP. Just to clarify a point about the 25-year guideline – the public record is reviewed, it is then sent to the agency concerned and the agency will comment on national security matters, personal issues and so on. Are those matters then redacted and the documents still released to the National Archives or is the document, because of certain national security concerns, not released at all?

Ms Sim Ann: Mr Speaker, Sir, we will release documents that have met or have addressed the concerns that I have listed before, which deal with national security, personal privacy, as well as confidentiality obligations.