The Department of Premier and Cabinet (DPC) has issued a new Circular for the Public Service to follow when managing official records.
In the Circular 2021-05 Managing Records in NSW Government, Secretary of DPC, Timothy Reardon said the Public Service’s records underpinned good service delivery and supported effective administration, accountability and transparency of the NSW public sector.
“Records are at the core of Government business and are valuable assets,” Mr Reardon said.
“Records can be in any format, and include email, spreadsheets, text messages, data in business systems, web pages, social media content (tweets, Facebook posts, Instagram posts etc.), photographs, CCTV, maps, plans, engineering drawings, paper files, and documents,” he said.
“Increasingly records are in digital format and are stored in network servers or data centres, or in the Cloud.”
Mr Reardon said Agencies should ensure records remained accessible for as long as required and disposed of in accordance with requirements in authorised Retention and Disposal Authorities, or in accordance with normal administrative practice of a public office.
He said Retention and Disposal Authorities set out how long different types of records must be kept to meet legal, operational and other requirements, and whether the records were to be kept permanently as State archives.
“Public offices should implement Retention and Disposal Authorities as part of their ongoing records management responsibilities,” he said.
“This involves applying the decisions set out in the authorities to records, ensuring that records are destroyed promptly and securely when their retention period has ended, and transferring those records identified as State archives to the State Archives Collection.”
The Circular says official records of enduring value are an important part of the State’s heritage and records required as State archives, which were no longer in use, should be routinely transferred to the State Archives Collection.
Circular C2021-05 can be accessed on the DPC website at this PS News link.
