Legacy public records

Your public authority is responsible for the ongoing management of legacy public records made by your public authority or inherited from another public authority as part of a Machinery of Government (MoG) change or administrative change.

Legacy records must be kept, managed and remain accessible for their full minimum retention period.

Close legacy public records when the function they relate to ceases. You should also update metadata to document that the function has ceased and that no new public records will be made.

If you have inherited public records from a public authority that has ceased, consider how they will be managed. You may need to decide if it is easier to manage them separately or if they should be integrated into your current recordkeeping system.

If you integrate legacy public records into your recordkeeping system, you will need to update existing tools, procedures, policies and business systems to include them.

You will also need to update metadata to document the public records' history.

Sentencing and disposing of legacy public records

Legacy public records should be sentenced under a current retention and disposal schedule. If there isn't a schedule you can use to sentence the public records, they can't be destroyed. These public records must be kept and preserved until disposal authorisation is given.

Temporary legacy public records can be destroyed once the minimum retention period has been reached.

Permanent archival value legacy public records can be transferred to QSA.

If necessary, legacy public records can be stored or sent to secondary or off-site storage until they can be disposed.

You may need to review your core retention and disposal schedule if the legacy public records are not covered.

Disposal advice for record managers provides more detailed information on establishing your systems and processes.  This is especially useful for record managers and covers Records governance policy requirement 6.