ISSN 1321-6260
October 2023 - No 161

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Recordkeeping

Report on the 2023 Recordkeeping Monitoring Exercise

The ‘State of Recordkeeping in NSW’ report is now available on our website.

The report provides results of the 2023 Recordkeeping Monitoring Exercise. Key findings include:

  • 278 public offices participated  in 2023, up from 247 in 2022.
  • 38% of participating public offices have scores which identify them as ‘mature’ in their records management, up from 30% in 2022.
  • The overall records management maturity score is 2.79 out of 5, up from 2.67 in 2022.

We will use these results, along with your extensive comments, to prioritise our efforts for assistance and guidance during the 2023-2023 financial year.

Draft retention and disposal authority for identity verification records

We are seeking your feedback on a draft retention and disposal authority which permits NSW public offices to retain and/or destroy identity verification records.  A copy of the proposed draft can be found on our website. 

Your feedback will help establish recordkeeping practice regarding identity verification records in the NSW public sector.

New Public Sector Advisory Committee

A new joint Public Sector Advisory Committee for State Records NSW and MHNSW has been established.

The Committee held its first meeting on 4 October 2023 and adopted new Terms of Reference.

The Committee will meet up to three times each year to advise, provide feedback, collaborate, and share experiences with State Records NSW and MHNSW to inform decisions, services, and initiatives of both agencies.

The membership of this Committee represents NSW Government agencies, departments, authorities, state-owned corporations, local government, local health districts and universities.

Records Managers Online Forum

Our next Records Managers Online Forum is scheduled for 31 October 2023 from 10am to 12pm. 

The Forum will feature the following:

  • State of Recordkeeping in NSW report
  • Transfer portal demonstration
  • Updates from State Records NSW and Museums of History NSW (MHNSW). 

Register here to attend. We look forward to seeing you at the Forum. 

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Standards and Policies

Building the Archives Policy 

Thank you to everyone who provided feedback on Building the Archives in June.

We are now seeking your feedback on the updated draft policy, particularly on whether the policy should be solely about identification of State archives. This would lead to the development of a separate policy on appraisal and disposal.

Please provide any feedback to governance@staterecords.nsw.gov.au by 31 October 2023.

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Museums of History NSW news & updates

Access directions – escalation to SROs and Chief Executives in October and November

Museums of History NSW staff have contacted all public offices to advise of the significant changes to the State Records Act 1998 commencing on 1 January 2024, including:

  • the Open Access Period being reduced from 30 years to 20 years

  • State records becoming open to the public by default once they are 20 years old unless otherwise closed through a Closed to Public Access direction.

The default to public access will apply to all State records once they are 20 years old – not just those that are described in a Retention and Disposal Authority as ‘required as State archives’ or that are already part of the State Archives Collection.

A significant number of public offices have already renewed or registered access directions to mitigate the risk of sensitive material inadvertently becoming open to the public.

But there are still many public offices that have not taken action and have not provided any recent update to MHNSW on their plans for ensuring appropriate access directions are in place.

MHNSW will communicate with the Senior Responsible Officer for each of those public offices in the coming week to highlight the risk created by a failure to renew or register appropriate access directions and urge the taking of necessary action.

Public offices can avoid the need for this communication by providing an update to the Agency Services team by Wednesday 18 October. Updates can be provided via transfer@mhnsw.au.

MHNSW seeks advice from public offices on:

  • action being taken to review access direction coverage, and

  • the date by which appropriate access directions will be renewed or registered. This date should be no later than Friday 8 December 2023.

If no update is received by Friday 27 October, further escalation will occur.

This will involve the Chief Executive Officer of MHNSW communicating with counterparts in relevant public offices in early November.

We urge public offices to take the necessary action now, including provision of updates to MHNSW.

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