The National Archives is a non-ministerial government department. Its parent department is the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. It is the official archive of the UK government and for England and Wales; and "guardian of some of the nation's most iconic documents, dating back more than 1,000 years." There are separate national archives for Scotland and Northern Ireland .
TNA was formerly four separate organisations: the Public Record Office , the Historical Manuscripts Commission, the Office of Public Sector Information and Her Majesty's Stationery Office . The Public Record Office still exists as a legal entity, as the enabling legislation has not been modified, and documents held by the institution thus continue to be cited by many scholars as part of the PRO. Since 2008, TNA has also hosted the former UK Statute Law Database, now known as legislation.gov.uk.
It is institutional policy to include the definite article, with an initial capital letter, in its name but this practice is not always followed in the non-specialist media.
The department is the responsibility of the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Arts, Heritage and Tourism; a minister in the Government of the United Kingdom.
