Introduction
Records, information and data are at the core of government business and are core assets.
Good recordkeeping is an important foundation for understanding government decisions and policies and creating trust in government.
In NSW public offices, records, information and data help organisations plan for and achieve short and long term outcomes that are relevant and valuable to the community, business and government. Records, information and data:
- drive collaboration, innovation and communications
- support evidence-based decision-making and policy development
- outline responsibilities
- mitigate business risk
- provide stakeholders with transparency around and accountability for government operations
- provide the foundation for sustainable and effective products and services
- document and support rights and entitlements
- preserve public knowledge for reference and reuse
- make up the corporate memory of an organisation.
To support these benefits, records, information and data need to be:
- trustworthy and managed accountably
- readily accessible, understandable and useable
- valued as critical to business operations
- governed by appropriate risk management approaches
- maintained securely to meet business, government and community purposes.
To achieve these outcomes, records, information and data must be supported by effective records and information management.
The State Records Act 1998 requires each public office to ‘make and keep full and accurate records of the activities of the office’, to ‘establish and maintain a records management program for the public office’ (section 12) and to maintain accessibility to equipment/technology dependent records (section 14). Section 21 of the Act prohibits the abandonment, disposal, transfer, damage or neglect of State records.
To help public offices understand and implement these obligations, State Records NSW has issued standards on records management since 1999. Following consultation with public offices, the 2018 standard has been revised and issued as this standard.
1.1 Purpose
The purpose of this standard is to establish minimum requirements for effective records and information management. It is designed to assist public offices discharge their obligations under Part 2 ‘Records management responsibilities’ and Part 3 ‘Protection of State records’ of the State Records Act, as well as incorporate records management requirements into new technologies and service delivery platforms.
1.2 Authority of this standard
This standard is issued under section 13(1) of the State Records Act which enables State Records NSW to ‘approve standards and codes of best practice for records management by public offices’.
1.3 Who should use this standard
This standard applies to all public offices as defined in section 3 of the State Records Act, to which Part 2 of the Act applies.
The standard applies to records created and maintained by contractors and service providers on behalf of public offices in the course of outsourced government business.
1.4 Scope of this standard
The standard covers records, information and data in all formats, including both digital and physical records.
Underpinning this standard is the need to ensure that business is supported by sound records and information management practices. Importantly, the standard has been framed and targeted to support good information practices in complex business and information environments.
This standard establishes requirements for the holistic management of records, information and data. Taking this approach better reflects the way in which most organisations now manage their information assets in an integrated manner.
This standard recognises the need for records and information management professionals to work closely with data custodians and/or managers. For data management policy and advice, see the NSW Government Data Strategy at https://data.nsw.gov.au/nsw-government-data-strategy .
To assist NSW public offices implement this standard, State Records NSW has mapped the requirements of the standard to the guidance and training available from State Records NSW. The mapping is available at https://www.nsw.gov.au/nsw-government/public-sector/recordkeeping/recordkeeping-policies-and-standards . Public offices should consult the Standard on the physical storage of State records for requirements for the storage of non-digital records and counter disaster requirements applicable to non-digital records.
1.5 Benefits of using this standard
Applying this standard will assist public offices to:
- create trustworthy, useful and accountable records, information and data in evolving business environments
- ensure that meaningful, accurate, reliable and useable records, information and data are available whenever required for government business needs
- sustain and secure the records, information and data needed to support short and long term business outcomes
- enable the reliable and safe sharing of relevant records, information and data
- establish and maintain governance, sharing and continuity processes
- minimise records, information and data volumes through timely disposal, thereby minimising storage costs and risks of over-retention of records
- proactively protect and manage the records, information and data that provide ongoing value to government business and to the community of NSW.
1.6 Structure
This standard sets out three principles for effective records and information management. Under each principle there is a brief overview and explanation of the principle, and a list of relevant minimum compliance requirements.
Each minimum compliance requirement is accompanied by a range of examples or suggestions of how a public office can demonstrate compliance with the requirement. These examples can provide ‘evidence’ of meeting the requirement but may not be the only way that compliance can be demonstrated.
1.7 Definitions
For the purposes of this standard the following definitions apply. Terms that have not been referenced are taken from State Records NSW sources. All other sources are provided in brackets after the definition. See the Glossary of Recordkeeping Terms for a full listing of terms used in records management and in the NSW public sector.
| Data | Set of characters or symbols to which meaning is or could be assigned (AS/NZS ISO 30300: 2020 – section 3.2.4). “Note: Data is the digital representation of information. It is considered to be the result of how information has been recorded and consists of bits, bytes, characters and pixels” (ISO/TR 8344: 2024 – section 3.2). |
| Data management | Activities involved with managing data across the full lifecycle so that it is protected from unauthorised use and inappropriate deletion. Data needs to be appropriately managed from procurement or service design through to creation and final disposal. This includes protection of personal, health and sensitive information, and the prevention of deletion until enabled by legal authorisation (see NSW Government Data Glossary). |
| Information | Data in context with a particular meaning (AS/NZS ISO 30300: 2020 – section 3.4.7). |
| Information management | Planning, collection, control, distribution and exploitation of information resources within an organisation, including systems development, and disposal or long term preservation (AS ISO 5127: 2017 – clause 3.2.1.23). |
| Record | Record means any document or other source of information compiled, recorded or stored in written form or on film, or by electronic process, or in any other manner or by any other means (State Records Act, s.3(1) Definitions). Information created or received and maintained as evidence and as an asset by an organisation, in pursuit of legal obligations or in the course of conducting business. (AS/NZS ISO 30300: 2020 – section 3.2.10) |
| Recordkeeping | The process of making accurate and reliable records and capturing them into the official recordkeeping systems of the organisation. |
| Records management | Field of management responsible for the efficient and systematic control of the creation, receipt, maintenance, use and disposition [disposal] of records, including processes for capturing and maintaining evidence of and information about business activities and transactions in the form of records (AS ISO 15489.1: 2017 – clause 3.15). |
| Senior responsible officer (SRO) | The senior responsible officer (SRO) is the individual within the public office who has been delegated strategic and corporate responsibility for records and information management. The SRO is responsible for ensuring that records and information management is in place and operating effectively to support business operations. The SRO is usually a senior manager reporting to the chief executive or to the chief information officer. |
| State archive | State archive means a State record that Museums of History NSW has control of under this Act (State Records Act, s.3(1) Definitions). |
| State record | State record means a record made or received by a person, whether before or after the commencement of this section – - in the course of exercising official functions in a public office, or
- for a purpose of a public office, or
- for the use of a public office (State Records Act 1998, s.3(1) Definitions).
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For further information on this standard, please contact State Records NSW.
PO Box 516 Kingswood NSW 2747
Telephone: (02) 9714 3080 E-mail: govrec@staterecords.nsw.gov.au
