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.479422854639/101581558...