Planning & Strategy Functions Project Report

Appendix Six: Records Management Route Map

Records management offers significant business benefits for the University, including:

Reduces time spent looking for information
Facilitates sharing of information
Reduces unnecessary duplication
Avoids costs associated with retention of unnecessary information eg storage costs, back up retention times and servicing information requests for information the University does not need in any case
Improves control over information assets
Ensures that the University’s records are legally admissible
Promotes consistency in dealing with information
Assists with disaster recovery and contingency planning.

Records management is also an essential element of compliance with the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2000. If the University does not know what records we hold, then it will be unable to respond to requests for information within the 20-day deadline prescribed by the legislation. In recognition of this s 61 of the Act makes provision for a statutory code of practice on records management, with which all public authorities are expected to comply.

It will be shortly a criminal offence to destroy information which is the subject of a freedom of information or data protection request. Records management can help demonstrate that information has been destroyed in accordance with the University’s policies and procedures and not in response to an information request.

It is the responsibility of each business area to ensure that it has proper procedures in place to capture and manage its records. As the University is a highly devolved organisation, it would be inappropriate for the central Records Management Section to develop a central set of procedures with which all areas were expected to comply. Devolving this responsibility will ensure that business areas develop systems which are responsive to their needs. To help business areas, the Records Management Section will produce guidance, policies and training and will support a network of freedom of information practitioners.

In a number of instances, for example, student records or computing records, it would be appropriate for groups of practitioners to work together to develop common records management policies and practices. The practitioners group will give business areas an opportunity to explore such opportunities.

To move towards full and reliable records management an organisation needs to know:

What day-to-day practices should we be following in creating records?
What records should we be keeping?
How can we ensure that our records are captured and accessible?
How long should we keep our records?
What records have we actually got?
How can we ensure that our records remain accessible for as long as they are needed?

The table in Annex A sets out the route map to enable practitioners to set up comprehensive records management systems which answer these questions. Annex B represents this diagrammatically.

Each business area must draw up their own timetable to implement records management in their area. To help with this, the table states when relevant guidance will be available, an indicative amount of time to allow for each activity, and the date by which it should be completed to ensure compliance with the statutory code of practice on records management by 1 January 2005.

In a small number of cases guidance will not be available until late 2004.However, it will be possible to take interim measures to set up systems without the full guidance.

Given the short timetable for freedom of information implementation, business areas are advised to target first core areas and those areas which are more likely to attract freedom of information requests, such as procurement.More complex areas, such as research and consortia, could be tackled once basic systems are in place.

Author: Susan Graham
July 2003

The University of Edinburgh is a charitable body, registered in Scotland, with registration number SC005336