Legacy records

Your agency is responsible for the ongoing management of legacy records created by your agency or inherited from another agency as part of a machinery-of-government change (MOG) or administrative change.

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

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

If you have inherited legacy records from an agency that has closed, 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 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 records' history.

Find out more about documenting a MOG or administrative change, and recordkeeping activities and event history metadata.

Sentencing and disposing of legacy records

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

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

Permanent archival value legacy records can be transferred to QSA.

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

You may need to review your core retention and disposal schedule if the legacy 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.