Whilst most of this material is open to public access, some documents may be closed under data protection legislation and access information is provided at file level. Public access to these records is governed by UK data protection legislation and the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002. Whilst some records may be accessed freely by researchers, the aforementioned legislation and guidelines mean that records conveying sensitive information on named individuals may be closed to the public for a set time.

Items disclosing personal or sensitive information relating to adults (18 years and over) will be closed for 75, and for minors (under 18 years) records will be closed for 100 years.

LHSA encourages the use of these records for legitimate clinical, historical and genealogical research purposes, and records that are designated as closed can be consulted by legitimate researchers if certain conditions are met. Please contact the LHSA Archivist for more details regarding procedures on how you can apply for permission to view closed records. Telephone us on 0131 650 3392 or email us at lhsa@ed.ac.uk.