Public Image

New Zealand’s Public Records Act 2005 changed the way that Archives New Zealand stored and managed the nation’s public information. Greg Goulding Group Manager, Government Recordkeeping, Archives New Zealand, tells us how.

When parliament passed the Public Records Act in April 2005, it introduced a whole new framework for the control and management of recordkeeping in the New Zealand public sector.

When parliament passed the Public Records Act in April 2005, it introduced a whole new framework for the control and management of recordkeeping in the New Zealand public sector.

In 1957, the Archives Act established the National Archives as an archives repository and set rules for ensuring that records of enduring value were kept and available for public access. In 1982, the Official Information Act extended this right of access to all government information, regardless of its age (with important exemptions for information that would compromise national security , privacy etc).

Both these acts rested on the assumption that records would be created and would continue to be accessible over time. This assumption foundered on two important developments both beginning around the mid 1980s. The first was the devolution of the New Zealand state sector, with the centralised control on all aspects of government life once exercised by the State Services Commission replaced with a large number of independent entities, each responsible for all aspects of their management. In this environment not all agencies were star performers in recordkeeping.

The second development was, of course, information technology. The ease and speed of electronic communications replaced slow and cumbersome paper systems, but meant the loss of the relative certainty that we associate with paper - easy to preserve, and easy to guarantee continuing accessibility as long as you protect it from fire, bugs, moisture and excessive light. The same cannot be said for electronic records.

Greg Goulding is the Group Manager,Government Recordkeeping, Archives New Zealand

For proof, simply try reading anything that you, or your predecessors, committed to a 5.25-inche disk in 1984. If media instability doesn’t get you, then technical obsolescence will. Not to mention the uncertainty around which version of that important document you might be holding.

Active Accountability
None of this by itself meant an act of parliament was necessary. What makes the difference is that the records of government are the means by which citizens can verify its actions. For good or bad, government can be judged through the records of its activities and interactions, which form part of the accountability resource available to citizens – but only if those records exist, and only if they can be accessed. A number of Audit and Ombudsmen investigations have run into problems on this very issue, and their reports have pointed to poor recordkeeping as an obstacle to conclusive findings. This reflected a gap in the legislation which the Public Records Act has filled. Legislation such as the Official Information Act (which establishes the public right of access to government information) is rendered less effective if the information either doesn’t exist, cannot be found or can no longer be accessed due to unmanaged system dependency. The Public Records Act addresses this by establishing a duty for public sector organisations to ensure they do have records of their activities, and that they can be accessed when needed.

Create And Maintain
The core of the Public Records Act are sections 17 and 18, which set out three very important requirements for central and local government agencies:

1. they must create and maintain full and accurate records of their affairs

2. they must maintain these records in accessible form for subsequent reference

3. they must not destroy or otherwise dispose of these records (e.g. transfer to archives, sell, alter etc) except with the authority of the Chief Archivist

Requirements 1 and 2 are new in this act, and are designed specifically to address the issues identified above. The third requirement carries over from the previous Archives Act 1957, and continues the principle that a neutral, third party perspective should be brought to bear when deciding how to dispose of government records.

A Standards Approach

The need to create and maintain records, and keep them accessible, does not stand by itself. To support government agencies in carrying out these core requirements, the Act provides for the Chief Archivist to issue mandatory or discretionary standards on all aspects of recordkeeping. The standards should achieve two things : first they will provide agencies with certainty about what constitutes good recordkeeping under the Act, secondly they will provide the benchmark by which an external audience can assess whether agencies are in fact meeting their obligations. But just as importantly, they will help agencies better manage themselves. Recordkeeping is not just about evidence of actions for accountability purposes. It is first and foremost about organisational memory and effective communication of decisions over time.

Archives New Zealand is now launching its mandatory standards programme. The first two standards will be about physical storage of records and about the creation and maintenance of full and accurate records. The storage standard will replace our existing discretionary standard for storage. The Act requires us to consult with all agencies affected and this process will begin soon. As there are up to 2500 central government agencies covered by the PRA (ranging from government departments through to state schools), in addition to local authorities, this will require a well planned, coordinated approach.

In addition to the mandatory standards, we are developing a discretionary standard for digitising public records. This will support our role as set out by section 25 of the Electronic Transactions Act, which allows the Chief Archivist to approve the retention of records in digitised form only (and in effect allows the destruction of the paper originals). This standard will give agencies the information they need when going into a digitisation project, and provide Archives New Zealand with the benchmark to assess requests made under the Electronic Transactions Act. This standard will be released as an exposure draft in June 2006.

Access And The Other Acts
By "public records" the Act means the records of central government – i.e. records of legitimate interest to the public. In this context, "public" does not necessarily mean publicly available, and there are often legitimate reasons for withholding access, such as personal privacy. All the same, there is no point keeping records as archives if they cannot be accessed at some point, and in fact the vast majority of archives stored at Archives New Zealand are made available to the public on request. The PRA extends the archival access framework to all public records over 25 years old, regardless of location, and requires government agencies to make a decision on access at this time: open or restricted? This means that agencies have the choice to declare records open in bulk, in advance of requests.

Records that continue to have restrictions can still be requested through an Official Information Act request to the government agency responsible for that record, which determines whether the record can be released. Legislation controlling access to records, such as the Privacy Act and the Criminal Records (Clean Slate) Act, continues to apply to records controlled by the Chief Archivist, but it is the relevant government agency that has the responsibility for ensuring that proper restrictions are in place, and for dealing with requests to access these records. The archivist’s primary role is to preserve the records and ensure that they can continue to be accessible

What’s already happening

The PRA has already had a big impact on the way government agencies perceive recordkeeping. A number of organisations have established new records management positions and are improving their systems and processes. In a 2005 survey of 103 organisations (including public service departments, courts, crown entities and state owned companies), 75% reported that they had plans to assess their compliance with the PRA. Our view is that this level of activity will only increase as we gear up for the first audits of recordkeeping in government in 2010. These audits, required under the act, will ensure that the public recordkeeping system is transparent and that people know whether government is keeping records adequately.

Comment on this story.

Related Article:
An uphill struggle