Here's an announcement that The National Archives posted on Facebook
on 1 April (at 2;22pm, so its not an April Fool's joke!):
"We’re pleased to confirm that we will be giving everyone free access
to our digitised collections very soon, but it’s taking our amazing
digital team a bit of time to make it happen.
"They’re facing similar challenges to the rest of the world with
regard to connecting to our various technical systems while working
from home, and many of them are also juggling childcare duties. Stay
tuned for an update soon!
"EDIT: To clarify, we’re referring to digitised collections that are
available on our website (and usually chargeable) – at this stage,
this doesn’t extend to our collections on other sites."
https://www.facebook.com/TheNationalArchives/photos/a.479422854639/10158155…
--
Andy Mabbett
@pigsonthewing
http://pigsonthewing.org.uk