Army records from MOD Redacted

[jdchisim]

Hi,

I have just received a copy of my grandfather's military records. However a lot of the records are redacted.

My grandfather served in the 1940s and passed away in the early 1990s.

I got my father, who is his only living relative apart from his brother to sign the next of kin form.

Cause that form was signed should we not have received the unredacted copies? This was my understanding of reading the form.

It says that it was something to do with rehabilitation of offenders or something like that. I understand that but my grandfather is dead near 3 decades and we are his family requesting his records.

Any clarifications or experience appreciated. Cause it may save me going back to MOD themselves to query this.

Thanks

[Pam Downes]

I know there are some restrictions on the information released, and found this on the MoD website.
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/request-...considerations
It doesn't say anything about redacted details possibly being released at a later date, and I'm not familiar enough with the FOIA to know.

A much easier question to answer is - when did you send for your grandfather's records? September 2019? March 2020? We know there is huge backlog of requests (the MoD say 'Currently it can take up to a year for your records to be processed') though my personal experience is that it's more like two years as I swear I sent off for my dad's records November/December 2019. I know it was before the first lockdown in March 2020.

Pam

[Lesley Robertson]

A lot depends on what he was doing back then. If it was under the Official Secrets Act, then it won’t be released until the work is declassified.
Redaction is a fairly new thing, way back when, I remember someone on one of the newsgroups who had been told that the records he wanted could not be released at that time.