I am not sure if you saw this announcement, but it comes into force today. TNA announced on 4 January that, with effect from 1 February 2016, it would be making changes to its fees for research, as well as for paper and digital copies of its records. Some other services will also change. Whilst TNA is allowed to charge for the statutory services it is obliged to provide under the Public Records Act (1958), it is not permitted to make a profit on those services but simply recover its costs. The new fees reflect the cost of changes to its remote record copying service, and also takes into account changes in the costs of providing certain other services. The remote record copying service allows you to request digital or paper copies of TNA’s records. It is introducing a new first step to the process, known as a paid-for page check, costing £8.24. This will cover the staff resources it takes to find the information that someone wants copied, and to assess whether TNA can safely copy it. This initial cost has been offset within the revised fees structure. Documents up to A3 in size will now both cost £1.10 per copy; digital copies previously cost £3.50 and paper copies £1.30. You can find full details about how to use the remote record copying service and see a summary of TNA’s new prices on the TNA website: www.nationalarchives.gov.uk
Reading quickly through the information on Discovery, it seems to make a lot of sense - in the past it always seemed a bit long-winded to order a copy of a document. The proof of the pudding and all that, maybe I'll give it a go..... Thanks Jan
