Records Storage and Disposal Survey 2008
Records Managers’ Forum 2 July 2008
Catherine Robinson Senior Project Officer, Government Recordkeeping
Overview
• Background to survey • Survey findings • Future directions
Background
Ministerial Memorandum M2007 – 08: Efficient and Cost Effective Management of Records • Available from www.dpc.nsw.gov.au/publications • Requires that:
– All agencies should have comprehensive Records Retention and Disposal Authorities in place by 2009 – 2010 – Agencies should implement Records Retention and Disposal Authorities as part of their ongoing records management responsibilities – State Records to manage a sector-wide program, working with agencies to reduce Government’s records storage costs
Background continued
Ministerial Memorandum M2007 – 08 requires:
– Agencies respond to State Records’ requests for information on storage arrangements, costs and potential savings – Records designated as State archives, and no longer in use for official purposes in the agency, should be routinely transferred to State Records’ care.
Records storage and disposal survey
• Survey designed to provide State Records with baseline data on:
– nature of storage arrangements – Cost of storing non-current paper-based records – Level of implementation of records retention and disposal authorities
• Survey also sought to obtain information from those Government agencies without a comprehensive records retention and disposal authority on their timing and plans for this work
Records storage and disposal survey contd
• Survey conducted February – March 2008 • Quantitative survey • Distributed to 166 NSW Government agencies and State Owned Corporations • 100% response rate
Survey findings - storage
• NSW Government stores 2.8 million boxes of noncurrent paper records • Total cost of storage is estimated at $12.8 million • 76% of non-current records are stored at commercial storage • 13% are stored in warehouse facilities leased or owned by the organisation • 11% are stored in office accommodation • Many organisations use a mix of storage options, eg commercial storage and office accommodation
Survey findings – storage (2)
• Warehouse facilities in regional and rural locations generally used by large organisations, with multiple locations in NSW • Only a small number of survey respondents identified that they used temporary storage facilities such as:
– – – – – shipping containers Demountables Depots Sheds Plant rooms
Survey findings – disposal implementation
• 10% of organisations have sentenced 100% of records in storage; 45% have not sentenced records in storage • 66% of non-current paper records in storage (1.9 million boxes) have not been sentenced; 63.5% of these boxes could be sentenced as their creating agencies have disposal coverage! • Low level of sentencing of records in storage has an impact on the potential to make cost savings across Government and on good records management
Survey findings – disposal implementation (2)
Organisations that sentence records can plan storage needs and control costs: • undertake regular destruction of records which have been retained for the correct retention period and have now expired • plan current and future storage needs, including anticipating growth in storage accumulations • regular and timely transfer of records, as State archives, to State Records, and • minimise costs.
Issues that low sentencing rates pose …
• Records without accurate sentences cannot be disposed of • Records which cannot be identified in storage, cannot be sentenced, and • Records that cannot be identified nor sentenced, need to be retrieved from storage in order to confirm the contents of the box and potentially be re-listed, and then sentenced!
Future Directions
State Records will be: • Follow up organisations with large accumulations of unsentenced records in storage, seeking plans on how accumulations will be reduced • From 1 October, all agencies submitting a draft FRDA for approval will also need to advise of plans to implement the new FRDA • Further survey in 2010 on storage and disposal • Revisions to advice and guidance on implementing retention and disposal authorities
Future directions continued
NSW Government agencies and SOCs will need to: • identify those records in storage that are not sentenced • undertake projects to sentence and dispose of records • likely that sentencing will result in the immediate disposal of time-expired records and will set ‘disposal triggers’ for other records in storage • Remember, records need to be retained for the period of time prescribed in disposal authorities!
For further information …
Catherine Robinson Senior Project Officer, Government Recordkeeping State Records
Tel: 8247 8631 cathr@records.nsw.gov.au