From 2 February 2026, The National Archives will increase fees for some services as we bring charges in line with current delivery costs. This is the first increase since 2019.

The changes affect fees for document copies, research and search services, and authentication, and also introduce a new fee for accessing recently transferred historic Ministry of Defence service personnel records.

Saul Nassé, Chief Executive of The National Archives said:

‘We are introducing updated fees that reflect the costs of providing services to meet the high standards our users rightly expect. We have worked hard to keep the costs as low as possible, while introducing new offerings that we believe the public will value. A visit to view records at our reading rooms in Kew remains free, while these charges allow us to invest in the additional services we know people want.’

Since the last review in 2018, the operational costs involved to deliver our services have increased significantly. Improvements in our processes have enabled us to keep the majority of increases below inflation over the six-year period.

The one charge which has increased more than inflation is for naturalisation certificate copies. The certification process for naturalisation certificates is more complex than the general record copying service. This multi-stage process ensures the integrity and authenticity of certified naturalisation certificates, which are often required for legal and official purposes, and the new charge reflects the full costs involved.

The fee structure now also includes two new routes for access to historic Ministry of Defence service personnel records via a bespoke digital service, Request A Military Service Record. This new offer, starting on 2 February 2026, will provide a speedier and better-quality service and will allow us to address the high demand for access since the service personnel records began arriving at The National Archives in 2021. To date we have received 8.2 million personnel records with approximately 2.6 million already available to search on our catalogue.

The National Archives does not make a profit from charging, as the fees reflect how much it actually costs to deliver our services today.

The vast majority of the records in our collection which are open and searchable on our catalogue can still be viewed for free in our reading rooms at Kew.

The new Fees Regulations can be viewed at legislation.gov.uk

Read more information on the new Fees Regulations

Read more information on the new Request a Military Service Record service

https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/about/news/the-national-archives-updates-service-fees/