Catalogue of disaster

You suggest access to government records has improved since 1992 ("Pens poised, paper waits", THES, May 19). Until recently, after good access to Department for Education and Employment records for research into government industrial-relations policy in the 1970s I would have been tempted to agree. But government policy is only part of the story. In reality, recent staff reductions have made finding and using relevant files much harder.

Richard Croucher Lecturer, Centre for Strategic Trade Union Management,Cranfield University