Who else shredded govt dept files on UK citizens before the 1994 Access to Information code?

www.parliament.uk/briefing-papers/RP97-69.pdf

In April 1994 a Code of Practice on Access to Official Information came into force. The Code is non-statutory and applies to the civil service and associated public bodies. The Parliamentary Commissioner for Administration handles complaints about the administration of the Code. Under the Code the public may apply for information relating to policies, actions and decisions of a particular department or body.

In short, when this initial 'code' came into force it was a temporary fix before the EU was about to force a freedom of information act on the UK government. The public, for the first time, would get a right to see official papers/decisions/etc as recorded in their personal files.
I was employed at a medium level in the civil service at the time and spent months of weekends working away (good overtime rates and hotel accommodation) basically reading through thousands of clerical files to shred when finding information that was 'opinion' instead of factually based. All derogatory statements about citizens were to be shredded, basically a 'clean' or incomplete file if the citizen asked for it. You get the picture.
I didn't even just work on files for the department I was assigned to prior to being 'acted up' for this additional role, in fact towards the end I remember the absolute panic rush, being in a file storage centre just 'picking a crate' and going through my quota and shredding anything 'less than factual'.

Now, my question. How many other UK members of ATS were involved in the same scam in the mid 90's?
There must be a few here because I was certainly just one of thousands rinsing the expenses at the time, and not really caring because 'the public aren't allowed to know' mantra was pretty much the deal for keeping a career. It was certainly not an attractive option for me to be a whistle blower back then, although I did tell everyone I knew personally, just didn't want to go to prison, especially understanding the govt administration regime of the era in those days.

If anyone else at ATS was involved in this back then please do share your stories here. No need for details, even myself I'm holding back on specific identifying depts/locations/dates/blah because I do not doubt our system is still wholly based on clearance, vetting and control, but it would certainly interest me to hear similar stories from this rather ignored, forgotten, and very real wool which was pulled over 'the public' eyes at the time.

Freedom of information, oh the irony of that free information when it came.

*Edit*
If no ATS members did the same as me 20 or so years ago (or don't want to admit it) please feel free to contribute your own general 'freedom' of UK governmental information thoughts. My OP question can also be considered an introduction of sorts so parallel discussion is equally welcome here.

Kind Regards.
GOS

I've exceeded the 4 hour edit time so apologies for the extra post...

To anyone who thinks they may have been in the same game of going through old-school clerical/paper files of UK citizens in the 90's, have a think about a Grade 5/6/7/SEO back then, telling you to shred officially recorded stuff that may have been written because it didn't conform with 'impartial' rules of the civil service. New rules coming in and all that.
There must be folk on ATS who did the same as me 20 years ago, it was influential to the point that the loss of recorded opinion of civil servants and operational information was less important than the civil service appearing impartial on record.
That would have taken many more people than the team of 50 or so I worked with when we were still on the cusp of digitally recorded information.

I didn't work on any project but here in the States it's still incredible how many files are shredded each year.

Files are only kept for a certain about of years (I think it's 10-20). If it's deemed irrelevant, it gets shredded.


Now with such cheap scanning and memory, NOTHING should be destroyed.

a reply to: Daughter2
...there will always exist 'yellow stickies' Post-it notes on hard copies, or a nod and a wink where it is important for the state to do its thing though. Sad perhaps but as we all adapt to our daily needs then I am of the opinion that the UK has and will continue to find ways around any EU legislation apparently promoting freedom clarity and openness.

a reply to: grainofsand

My mother has been fighting for justice for many years, the police started doing something about the crime commited against her (she was robbed of a massive inheritance and victimized with attempt's made on her life on more than one occasion by a solicitor called woodcock and a police man called Storey), after something called the Cheatah fraud case in liverpool a young scottish police officer told her that he was disgusted and leaving the police because he was sick of the corruption and was going to join the ambulance service instead, he also told her that they were tieing up loose end's on orders of the Heirarchy and it was the Heirarchy that had robbed her of her land, title, property and money's.
Now they police Shredded all document's related to the case (A case where the former liverpool city council chief Derek Hatton had been arrested and questioned and he had actually admitted to my mother that they had simply taken her property and land, built on her land and stolen it).
Shortly thereafter Tattershall Bloodstock which was My mother's property a company going back generations through my mother's ancestors back to when it had been founded by her ancestor Lord Tattershall in 1746/7 in london and was an English company which specialised in more than merely selling horses but was also colloquially known as the ring's, moved to the Irish Rebublic, this was to stop any further investigation as the company had been ILLEGALLY and in breach of a Court order of Protection Floated by people who did not own it.

So I confirm the Police are CORRUPT AND VILE, they did shredd many important document's including document's they did not own and should have returned to there owners.

I just want to add this in case they want to make a case with me as I would welcome it the thieving scum that they are, I am paul the youngest son of LADY Alice (KNOWN AS AGNES AS A CHILD TO HER AUNT ELIZEBETH TATTERSHALL) nee HALLWORTH FEGAN, married Francis leslie 1947, divorced Francis Leslie (IRISH NATIONAL) 1959, Supposedly dead after Doctor Coleman submitted a false Death Certificate and had a Plaque dedicated to her on the Tattershall Stand at Aintree Racecourse in 1960 confirmed in a letter from the queen mother that we have in our possession also her property and stolen by LORD SEFTON who did not Own it and Illegally sold to the Toppham family whom then Illegally sold the document's in 1970 to Bill Davies (Atlantic Holdings was one of his later company's) for £1 million in a Gladstone bag which he gave to Mirrabell Toppham for a streight exchange of the Document's so no legal transfer since she had the document but did not OWN THEM so neither did HE, he then had the Tattershall Stand Demolished but had to later rebuild it, Apparantly though according to a former night watchman he had gone into the stand already in the late 1960's and demanded the safe opened which it was then he took document's from it at that time also. My mother Married Edward Terrence McArdle in 1960 and Divorced him in 1969.

She was told by one police officer to get them to take her to court as she has evidence it is her property but if you knew liverpool and lancashire police as I do, it seem's they either do not have any brain cells or they simply do not care about a serious and organized Fraud, we do not have a statute of limitations in the UK and the court order of protection covering my mother's inheritanc was never lifted so all transaction are legally null and void as well as illegal, Chester court told her that her trust had been TURNED INTO other trusts including Land investment trust and a trust for investment business.

Injustice is not the word, My mother's half sister (No claim on the inheritance and no right to any of it) sold a bond that led to my mother's trust to a man named Malcolm Fowler of Toot's solicitors in birmingham, she did not own the bond and it was an act of theft and receipt of stolen document's.


Sorry to add this tip of the iceberg to your thread but if they read this and want to deny there crime let them sue me and take me to court as the truth will come out or I will die trying.

It was only in the 1970's that my mother found out about the trust and she has been fighting for justice ever since, in 1997 the then Conservative MP of West Lancashire Mr KEN HIND Barrister told her after she had gone seeking his help, ten day's before the Labour MP colin pichthall replaced him told my mother that her inheritance was that much money there was no gentleman above board and that if she tried to get anywhere there was someone in ever department who would put a stop to it, He also told her that she was a Multimillionaires with a mansion and that her property had simply been taken, ie stolen, when she first met him he was under the impression he had already met my mother in london, such a meeting had never taken place and my mother made that clear but he became a bit cagey on the matter but it does also point to someone also using her identity.

SO SERIOUS ORGANISED Fraud, Attempted murder, POLICE INVOLVEMENT a fomer officer called Vivien Webster Jones who was living at or running Field estate kensington london, Official Conspiracy, Corrupt Magistrate's (A MR James Lee JP whom was squatting in my mother's house 8 Stanley Road whitefield and had taken documents from a floor safe there using them to commit fraud, Concealement, Embezzlement among other matters' in this fraud and involvment going right up the heirarchy of the country and the Police Disposed of the document's relating to the case which was Dropped after the HEIRARCHY STEPPED IN AND TOLD THEM TOO, not the government, not the law the HEIRARCHY.

a reply to: LABTECH767
That is a truly awful personal story you shared here, and it saddens me that I am not actually surprised about such things happening. Corruption happens at all levels of society and the higher up the food chain you go the more difficult it is to gain any justice, that is clear.

I noticed you also touched on the same events here:
www.abovetopsecret.com...
...and I would suggest that it most certainly deserves a detailed topic of it's own, if not to help your mother in any way now, but so you know that anyone reading it will see your own truthful account of what really happened.
If you took the time to author the story, with a timeline of events I for one would certainly take the time to read it and commend you for having the courage to front those in power who treated your mother so badly.

It is a sad fact that when official documents are shredded it can cause hardship to a citizen who may rely on those papers for evidence while dealing with officialdom.
I often wonder how many people suffered hardship or even just inconvenience from those slash and burn shredding tactics I took part in prior to the 1994 Access to Information code. And for the record, I do feel guilt for my disregard about such things at the time.

Wow, this is the first I have heard of this.

S+F

Thank you for posting this thread. Sometimes the threads with really important information based in reality arent as popular as the wild fantastical claims without a shred of proof.
I think its a shame personally.
No, a travesty.

We referred to it as 'file 13' not really prepared to say more though.

a reply to: OneManArmy
Cheers fella, I'll admit I'm surprised this hasn't really come out in the wash on ATS before now, but then official secrets act and other such imprisonable offences probably explain it.

originally posted by: biggilo
We referred to it as 'file 13' not really prepared to say more though.

Ooh you tease haha! I guess I understand your concerns but pity though, it sounds like you have a story or two to tell. N.Ireland I notice so perhaps your concerns could be greater than mine on the big island.
If HM government wanted me they'll get me, but this conspiracy of 20 odd years is pretty minor so I don't worry too much.
If I curiously disappear from ATS though, who knows, a few folk will probably celebrate... lol


....go on biggilo, chuck us a bone, it was shady as # in 90's Crown service, everyone knows it, I just wanna hear anyone else's tales as well.

I worked for the NIO and was seconded out to HMP Maghaberry, that was during the time that HMP Maze (H blocks) was being closed and inmates being transferred to Maghaberry....

a reply to: biggilo
Your post just conjured up TV images in my head from those dark days, but you were living it up close.
Issues in NI affected me only as far as considering the state of alert notices at Crown building security desks, so I imagine your world was massively different to mine. Yep, I'd bet there would be many more things I'd keep my mouth shut about if I'd shared your experiences.
When I'd browse the Civil Service transfer vacancies available each month I always skipped past the Northern Ireland pages. I'm glad things have improved from what they were for you guys, and hope it continues.