London: Minister tells House of Lords some MoD UFO files are Secret, 1980 records gone
On 25 January 2001, Minister of State for Defence Procurement Elizabeth Symons told the House of Lords, answering Lord Hill-Norton, that a number of MoD documents on UFOs were graded Secret and that records on Rendlesham from 1980 no longer existed.
Background
In the UK House of Lords, Peter Hill-Norton asked the Ministry of Defence what was the “highest classification that has been applied in any MoD document concerning UFOs.” Minister of State for Defence Procurement Elizabeth Symons replied that a “limited search through available titles has identified a number of documents graded Secret,” adding that the overall classification was not dictated by details of specific UFO sightings. Asked about Rendlesham, she said that records dating from 1980 no longer existed and that “Special Branch officers may have been aware of the incident but would not have shown an interest unless there was evidence of a potential threat to national security.” The account follows the entry in George M. Eberhart's chronology UFOs and Intelligence (CUFOS) and the sources cited there; it is not an independent determination by From Beyond Space.