State of Government Recordkeeping 2015/16 Report

21 July 2017

The Chief Archivist’s 2015/16 annual report to the Minister of Internal Affairs on the state of government recordkeeping was presented to the House of Representatives today. Prepared under the Public Records Act 2005, the production of this annual report was delayed by Kaikôura earthquake disruption.

In the previous report the Chief Archivist had expressed concerns about the poor recordkeeping within many public offices. The 2015/16 report outlines steps to address these concerns and optimise Archives’ regulatory role such as the development of a new mandatory information and records management standard, a regulatory statement and the revision of core guidance material.

These form the foundation to support public offices and local authorities in creating and maintain full, accurate and accessible information and records to provide government accountability and public confidence in the integrity of information and records. A key innovation in the new information and records management standard is a new role of Executive Sponsor within organisations to champion the importance of information and records management among an organisation’s leadership.

The report describes the development of the capability to transfer born-digital records from public offices to Archives New Zealand. While progress has been made in trials with public offices, it is clear that there is more work to be done by both Archives New Zealand and the public offices that are transferring records.

Archives New Zealand’s regulatory interventions are reported on. Most notably, charges were laid for the first time under the Public Records Act in the context of a successful attempt to recover records that were being improperly offered for sale. The report may be viewed at Report: State of Government Recordkeeping and Public Records Act 2005 2015/16 (Archives New Zealand website).