Annual Report and Accounts for 2019-2020
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2019-20 Annual Report and Accounts of The National Archives HC 402 Annual Report and Accounts of The National Archives 2019-20 Including the Annual Report of the Advisory Council on National Records and Archives 2019-20 Annual Reports presented to Parliament pursuant to section 1(3) of the Public Records Act 1958 Accounts presented to the House of Commons pursuant to section 6(4) of the Government Resources and Accounts Act 2000 Accounts presented to the House of Lords by Command of Her Majesty Ordered by the House of Commons to be printed on 21 July 2020 HC 402 This is part of a series of departmental publications which, along with the Main Estimates 2020-21 and the document Public Expenditure: Statistical Analyses 2019, present the government’s outturn for 2019-20 and planned expenditure for 2020-21. © Crown copyright 2020 This publication is licensed under the terms of the Open Government Licence v3.0 except where otherwise stated. To view this licence, visit nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3 Where we have identified any third party copyright information you will need to obtain permission from the copyright holders concerned. This publication is available on our website at nationalarchives.gov.uk and on GOV.UK www.gov.uk/official-documents. Any enquiries regarding this publication should be sent to us via our website. ISBN 978-1-5286-1954-7 CCS0520639394 07/20 Printed on paper containing 75% recycled fibre content minimum Printed in the UK by the APS Group on behalf of the Controller of Her Majesty’s Stationery Office The National Archives Annual Report and Accounts 2019-20 Preface About the Annual Report and Accounts of The National Archives: This document combines performance and financial data with analysis to help readers better understand our work. It sets out how we spend taxpayers’ money to fulfil our remit as the official archive and publisher for the UK Government, and for England and Wales. It covers our activities from April 2019 to March 2020 (inclusive), and is divided into three main sections. The performance report and analysis (pages 5 to 29) includes a summary of progress and key activities (the performance overview), followed by our achievements over the year against each of the business priorities, and input and impact indicators (the performance analysis). The accountability report (pages 30 to 68) includes an introductory statement from the Chair of our Board, and the Directors’ report sets out our operating structure and transparency matters such as inclusion and diversity, and whistle-blowing. It also includes: ■ a statement of the Accounting Officer’s responsibilities ■ a governance statement on how The National Archives manages risk ■ a remuneration and staff report setting out an open account of the pay and benefits received by the executive directors and Non-executive Board members ■ disclosures on pay and pensions policies, and details of staff numbers and costs ■ a parliamentary accountability and audit report, allowing readers to understand the department’s expenditure against the money provided to it by Parliament along with the Statement of Parliamentary Supply ■ a copy of the audit certificate and report made to Parliament by the Head of the National Audit Office, setting out their opinion on the financial statements. The financial statements (pages 69 to 93) outline our income and expenditure for the financial year, the financial position of the department as of 31 March 2020, and additional information designed to enable readers to understand these results. Annex A (pages 94 to 102) provides a detailed sustainability report, giving an overview of our activities during the financial year, our progress against Greening Government Commitments targets, and our plans for 2020-21. Annex B (pages 103 to 116) contains the Advisory Council on National Records and Archives: 17th Annual Report 2019-20, which describes its role, work actioned in year, and details of the Forum on Historical Manuscripts and Academic Research. Annex C (pages 117 to 119) contains the Annual Report of the Independent Complaints Reviewer, which sets out information on the service and standards, an overview of both the learning from complaints and customer feedback, and of complaint activity and examples. 3 The National Archives Annual Report and Accounts 2019-20 Contents 1. Performance report 5 1.1 Overview 6 Introduction 6 Who we are 10 Our audiences and the digital challenge 12 1.2 Performance analysis 22 Financial management commentary 22 Performance against our business priorities 23 Performance against our input and impact indicators 26 Environment and sustainability 29 2. Accountability report 30 2.1 Corporate governance report 31 Statement from the Chair of The National Archives’ Board 31 Directors’ report 32 Governance statement 35 Statement of Accounting Officer’s responsibilities 45 2.2 Remuneration and staff report 46 2.3 Parliamentary accountability and audit report 58 Statement of Parliamentary Supply 58 Audit certificate and report 65 3. Financial statements 69 Notes to the Departmental Resource Accounts 74 Annex A Sustainability accounting and reporting 94 Annex B Advisory Council on National Records and Archives: 17th Annual Report 2019-20 103 Annex C Annual Report of the Independent Complaints Reviewer for 2019-20 117 4 Performance Report 1 The National Archives Annual Report and Accounts 2019-20 1.1 Overview Introduction from Chief Executive and Keeper To the Right Honourable Oliver Dowden CBE Public engagement MP, Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Key to becoming an Archive for Everyone is Media and Sport developing meaningful public engagement programming for our audiences on site and This year’s Annual Report and Accounts for online. In 2019, we delivered Protect and The National Archives 2019-20 marks the first Survive: Britain’s Cold War Revealed, our largest year of our new strategy Archives for Everyone. and most ambitious exhibition to date. Our on Launched in June 2019, the strategy sets out site exhibition and supporting events attracted our plans to become the 21st century national more than 22,000 people to Kew. During the archive for the people and communities we season, we experimented with opening hours serve, and tasks us with engaging broader, to provide new audiences with the opportunity more diverse audiences with our collections, to visit us, who would not otherwise have been and those of archives across the country. able to participate. When we closed to the Reporting on our progress comes against the public in March, our latest exhibition – With background of the global COVID-19 crisis. It Love – was suspended, as was our other on site is a challenging time for millions across the public programming. world, including the national and international A proposed trial to adapt our on site document archives community. In line with the UK ordering services has also been delayed, and Government’s advice, and for the first time when we are able to return safely to Kew, we in a generation, we closed our iconic and hope to restart the construction of two new much loved building in Kew to the public embedded learning spaces. These spaces will on 17 March, and to staff on 21 March. It is be augmented following a pledge of £500,000 inevitable that we will need to review our by the Clore Duffield Foundation, to the strategic priorities taking account of the impact newly established independent charity, The of the crisis, and we cautiously approach this National Archives Trust. Launched in February change with a degree of confidence due to 2020, the Trust aims to promote the rich our long-term investment in digital content. archival heritage held by us, and many other Our promise and potential are as great as ever archives throughout the UK by supporting and our ambition is undimmed, but how we world-leading community, engagement and realise Archives for Everyone will necessarily be education programmes. different from how we originally envisaged it. Throughout 2019-20, we continued to deliver With this in mind, this report looks at our our award-winning educational resources progress in the reporting year 2019-20, while for school pupils and students, despite the acknowledging the challenges faced in the suspension of our on site schools programme closing days of the period, and how this will due to our closure. Since then, we have worked affect our work and organisation for the to make our online educational offer a reliable foreseeable future. tool for home learning by developing and tailoring new and existing online resources. For 6 The National Archives Annual Report and Accounts 2019-20 as long as our Kew site remains closed to the public records. The funding has been used public, we have also made our digital records by services to sustain and develop their freely available for everyone on our website. collections and enhance access. Archives sector leadership Government information and legislation The government’s strategic vision for the services archives sector, Archives Unlocked, promotes Although transfers of public records from the wide-ranging information and collections government departments to Kew were that archives hold, and advocates putting temporarily suspended on 18 March 2020, them within easier reach of users. With our our fundamental statutory duties as a non- partners, we are taking forward a workforce ministerial department and the official archive development strategy to address gaps in the and publisher for the UK Government, and sector, and to develop new ways to recruit for England and Wales, remain unchanged. diverse talent into the archive profession. Throughout 2019-20, we proactively supported the government in managing its In December, we launched Plugged In, Powered digital information, taking a collaborative, Up, a comprehensive strategy of programmes, user-focused approach with the government training and resources to support archives knowledge and information management and address the gaps in vital digital skills.