Electronic Transactions Act 2002 and the Archives Act 1957

1
Electronic Transactions Act 2002 and
theArchives Act 1957

• Adam Stapleton
• Archives New Zealand

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Overview

• Archives Act 1957.
• Proposed Public Records Bill.
• Retention and disposal provisions in ETA 2002.
• Approval process.

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Archives Act 1957

• Key provision no public records may be disposed
  of without authority of Chief Archivist.
• Did not envisage the electronic generation and
  storage of records.
• Assumed recordkeeping culture.

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Definition of public records

• Public records means all papers, documents, or
  records of any kind whatsoever officially made or
  received by any Government office in the conduct
  of its affairs or by any employee of the Crown in
  the course of his official duties and, without
  limiting the generality of the foregoing
  provisions of this definition, includes
  registers, books, maps, plans, drawings,
  photographs, cinematograph films, and sound
  recordings so made or received and also includes
  copies of public records.
• s2 Archives Act 1957

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Destruction provision

• No person shall destroy or otherwise dispose of,
  or authorise the destruction or other disposal
  of, any public archives of any kind whatsoever
  that are in his possession or under his control,
  except with the consent of the Chief Archivist
  given in accordance with the provisions of this
  Act.
• s15(1) Archives Act 1957

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Proposed Public Records Bill

• Recognises eviceration of recordkeeping culture
  in public sector (structural reform and
  information technology).
• Make and keep provisions (not just disposal).
• Clarifies that electronic records are public
  records.
• Provision for auditing of public sector agencies
  recordkeeping programmes against mandatory
  standards.

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Status of Public Records Bill

• 4rd draft from Parliamentary Counsel Office
  received.
• Minor issues to resolve.
• Looking to introduce into the House this year.

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Implications of s25 ETA

• May destroy non-electronic originals and retain
  in their place electronic copies if Chief
  Archivist approves.
• This does not prevent agencies from using
  electronic copies for business purposes.

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Approval process

• Effectively a continuation of the destruction
  provisions in the Archives Act 1957.
• Chief Archivist may withhold approval to destroy
  non-electronic originals because of a range of
  factors including
• - iconic / intrinsic value of originals
• - quality assessment of technology

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Rationale behind s25(2)

• Iconic or intrinsic value of records may warrant
  their permanent preservation.
• Since the requirements for electronic
  recordkeeping are still evolving, Archives New
  Zealand feels that case-by-case assessments of
  digitisation projects are needed in order to
  mitigate against the loss of the electronic
  copies.

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Intrinsic value

• The physcial form of some records have inconic or
  intrinsic value. e.g. non-electronic originals
  may have cultural signifance and should be
  retained indefinitely in that form.

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Quality assessment (1)

• The quality assessment process is set out in
  Copying and Digitising Public Records Advisory
  Notice.
• - www.archives.govt.nz/continuum

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Quality assessment (2)

• Copying and Digitising Public Records Advisory
  Notice is based on British Standards
  Institutions Code of Practice for Legal
  Admissibility of Information stored on Electronic
  Document Management Systems.

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Quality assessment (3)

• For electronic copies to be regarded as a
  replacement for the non-electronic originals,
  adequate process quality assurance, data
  management, media management and ongoing
  migration strategies must be demonstrated.

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Quality assessment (4)

• Archives will use three dimensions for quality
  assessment
• - recordkeeping programme
• - recordkeeping system
• - record objects

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Future developments

• Archives New Zealand is developing a range of
  assessment tools (standards and guides) that will
  give a more comprehensive set of criteria for the
  technology quality assessment.

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Assessment tools