PR3152/LM

28 September, 2006

Dear Mr Whelan

Thank you for your correspondence, dated 24 September 2006.

The task of transferring the contents of former boys and girls' files into a computer accessible format is being undertaken by Filesafe, a company which specialises in document management services, including secure storage facilities for archiving original documents. The company's own website www.filesafe.co.uk gives more details of the services that the company provides. The company was chosen because it was able to offer the technical capacity to reproduce high quality imaging of both the more modern files and the Victorian, completely hand-written records and provide safe, secure storage, away from the Village, for the original documents. The file retrieval system is such that should original documents be required their location can be identified within minutes and the documents obtained the same day.

The files are removed by authorised Quarriers' staff, filing-cabinet drawer by drawer and boxed before being immediately transferred to Filesafe's premises in East Kilbride. A director of the company signs a receipt for the files taken, prior to leaving the Village with them. Once they have arrived the boxes are each given a unique internal audit number by which their progress through the system can be logged. The file contents are put through the electronic scanner by specific Filesafe employees, one record at a time. The sheets of paper are then returned to their folder, the folders boxed again, ready to be securely stored in Filesafe's on-site facility. The scanned images are then passed electronically to a small team of people who specialise in indexing the documents in order that an accessible database can be produced. A copy of the electronic data will be held confidentially by Filesafe, as a security in the event of any corruption of the system here in Quarriers. Within Quarriers the database of file records from 1910 will be held on a set of DVDs, kept under locked conditions and only accessible by named, authorised members of staff. Earlier records, which were kept in annual ledgers rather than individual files, are currently held on an external hard drive.

Information was placed on Quarriers website about the programme earlier in the year. Once the work is completed, information to this effect will be added to Quarriers website. The project is being undertaken as one continuous task, so as each decade of records is completed the next will begin. It is expected that this work will be completed by the Spring of next year.

Yours sincerely

Phil Robinson

Chief Executive