New South Wales Consolidated Regulations New South Wales Consolidated Regulations(Clause 6)
These guidelines give guidance as to what constitutes normal administrative practice in a public office.
In this Schedule:
"continuing value" , in respect of records, means records that have
administrative, business, fiscal, legal, evidential or historic value to the
public office.
"ephemeral" , in respect of records, means records of little value that only
need to be kept for a limited or short period of time. Records that are
ephemeral have no continuing value to the public office and, generally, are
only needed for a few hours or a few days.
"facilitative" , in respect of records, means records of little value and of a
routine instructional nature that are used to further some activity. Most
records that are facilitative have no continuing value to the public office
and, generally, are only needed for a few hours or a few days.
In this Part:
"draft" means any version, other than the final version, of a record, such as
an address, speech, report, correspondence, table, statistics, file note, plan
or sketch prepared prior to approval or production of the final version of the
record.
Drafts that must not be disposed of are drafts that document significant decisions, discussions, reasons and actions or contain significant information that is not contained in the final version of the record. For example:
(a) drafts containing significant or substantial changes or annotations, and
(b) drafts relating to the formulation of legislation, legislative proposals and amendments, and
(c) drafts relating to the formulation of policy and procedures, where the draft provides evidence of the processes involved or contains significantly more information than the final version of the record.
Drafts that may be disposed of are drafts that are of a routine nature (other than drafts referred to in clause 4). For example, drafts annotated with only facilitative instructions for formatting or the correction of typographical, grammatical or spelling errors.
In this Part:
"working papers and records" means papers, background notes and reference
materials that are used to prepare or complete other records.
Working papers and records that must not be disposed of are those that document significant decisions, discussions, reasons and actions or contain significant information that is not contained in the final version of the record. For example:
(a) working papers and records of a project officer or investigative officer that are the substantive record of the project or investigation (that is, they contain substantial and valuable information not found elsewhere), and
(b) working papers and records in an unofficial filing system where a registered file has not been created or kept within a public office's record-keeping system.
Working papers and records may be disposed of when they are primarily facilitative and when the retention of the final version of a record is sufficient to meet the record-keeping requirements of a public office, so long as they are not required to be retained in order to account for policies, decisions, reasons and actions or not required to function as evidence. For example:
(a) audio recordings of conferences and meetings used to prepare correspondence, papers, minutes and transcripts, and
(b) calculations, and
(c) rough notes (including rough notes of meetings and conversations where a formal record has been made), and
(d) statistics and figures.
In this Part:
"duplicates" means reproductions of records the original or authorised copies
of which are contained within a public office record-keeping system.
Duplicates that must not be disposed of are:
(a) duplicates of records sourced from outside the public office that should properly be captured in an appropriate way within the record-keeping system of the public office, and
(b) duplicates of internal public office records that in themselves may form part of a record, for example an authorised copy of a document sent from a central office to a regional area where that copy should be captured in the record-keeping system of the regional area.
Duplicates that may be disposed of are:
(a) information copies of records that have already been captured within a record-keeping system elsewhere in the public office and that are generally held for reference purposes (for example, copies of correspondence, reports and memos), and
(b) duplicates of publications (for example, external annual reports, price lists, trade journals, catalogues, brochures and leaflets).
Computer support records that must not be disposed of are those that support significant functions of the public office and that may be needed as evidence of particular activities (for example, records that provide audit trails).
The following computer records may be disposed of once they have been acted upon or superseded and are not required for ongoing business requirements:
(a) input and output formats from electronic business and records systems, such as the following:(i) error or control reports,(ii) input forms for data entry,(iii) output used for checking and verifying,(iv) regular batch reports,(v) system reports,(vi) transaction reports used for checking and control purposes,
(b) reference copies of user manuals and similar documents,
(c) superseded computer logs,
(d) superseded or obsolete computing software,
(e) systems back-ups,
(f) test data.
In this Part:
"facilitating instructions" means records that contain routine or facilitative
instructions to officers.
The following facilitating instructions must not be disposed of:
(a) those that are identified as having continuing value (for example, records that are part of an actual business transaction itself),
(b) those that have policy or procedural implications,
(c) those that are identified as important to the public office.
Facilitating instructions that can be disposed of are those that are ephemeral. They may relate to such activities as the following:
(a) correcting typing errors,
(b) file creation or retrieval,
(c) filing a letter,
(d) formatting records,
(e) internal distribution lists for informational purposes,
(f) running off duplicates.
In this Part:
"outgoing correspondence" means original correspondence that is sent from a
public office in the course of normal business activities.
Authorised copies of outgoing correspondence are to be captured in an appropriate way within the public office's record-keeping system and must not be disposed of.
After an authorised copy of outgoing correspondence has been captured in an appropriate way within the public office's record-keeping system, the original may be sent from the public office.
In this Part:
"messages" includes messages in the form of e-mail, voice mail, SMS (short
message service) messages, instant messaging, facsimiles, telephone messages,
transmission reports or similar records.
Messages that must not be disposed of are those that are identified as having continuing value.
Messages that may be disposed of are:
(a) those that are ephemeral, or
(b) those of which a copy has been placed on the relevant file or captured in an appropriate way within a public office record-keeping system.
Unused stationery items, such as unused letterhead, volumes or forms, may be disposed of.
In this Part:
"solicited and unsolicited advertising material" refers particularly to
advertising and other material generally known as "junk mail". It includes
(but is not limited to) the following:
(a) advertising "flyers",
(b) brochures,
(c) catalogues,
(d) price lists.
Solicited and unsolicited advertising material may be disposed of. Some catalogues may need to be placed on the appropriate equipment or purchase files.
From time to time it may be necessary for records to be taken out of the State for the conduct of official business.
It is acceptable for an authorised person (who is employed in a NSW Department or other NSW public office) to take records temporarily out of the State for official business, but only if those records are relevant or necessary to the conduct of that official business. Such records are to remain in the custody of the authorised person and are to be returned to the public office when no longer required for the conduct of that business.