The National Records of Scotland (www.nrscotland.gov.uk) appears to be changing the remit of the ScotlandsPeople website (www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk), with news that the latest tranche of records to be added to the platform are, errr, Scottish Cabinet files from 1999-2005. From the site:
Historical Scottish Cabinet Records have been added to ScotlandsPeople for the first time. Over 1,500 records dating mainly to 2005 are now available to search and download for free. Historical records of the Scottish Cabinet are held by the National Records of Scotland. These records are opened to the public after 15 years as part of the Scottish Government’s commitment to transparency, and future historical records will be added over time.
The Scottish Cabinet is the group of senior Ministers, including the First Minister of Scotland, which is responsible for Scottish Government policy. It came into existence in 1999, following the establishment of the Scottish Parliament and the devolved Scottish administration.
The full announcement is at https://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/article/news-article-scottish-cabinet-records-released-scotlandspeople.
COMMENT: Whilst I completely agree that these files should be made public and accessible online, I can't help feeling that ScotlandsPeople is not the right platform on which to do so. It would certainly seem to suggest that the recently added Virtual Volumes tool to the platform recently is not purely going to be confined to the hosting of family history or genealogical materials. The About Us section of the site suggests that ScotlandsPeople is 'the official Scottish Government site for searching government records and archives', and that it is 'used by hundreds of thousands of people each year to apply for copies of official certificates and to research family history, biography, local history and social history'. And now political history.
A very odd update, and I suspect not one that the site's users to date ever considered would be a priority for their family history needs. (Mind you, I do know of at least two MSPs who are very interested in family history!)
There is a guide to the new records available at https://www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk/guides/scottish-cabinet-records.
Chris
My new book Tracing Your Irish Ancestors Through Land Records is now available to buy at https://bit.ly/IrishLandRecords. Also available - Sharing Your Family History Online, Tracing Your Scottish Family History on the Internet, Tracing Your Irish Family History on the Internet (2nd ed), and Tracing Your Scottish Ancestry Through Church and State Records - to purchase, please visit https://bit.ly/ChrisPatonPSbooks. Further news published daily on The Scottish GENES Facebook page, and on Twitter @genesblog.
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