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 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 non- current 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: