Inspection services

We are developing our inspection regime to incorporate a moderated self-assessment process. The self-assessment process will be piloted by local authority archive services in England during 2006-07.

Formal inspections will still continue if they are requested or if the self assessment procedure highlights a need for further action; in order to fulfil our statutory functions and obligations in relation to the approval of places of deposit for public records under the Public Records Act 1958; to facilitate the allocation of manuscripts in lieu of tax; and to support repositories that fall outside the pilot programme. We are also committed to providing audit inspections for record-holding bodies that need no formal approval and general advice on standards and best practice to all types of repositories.

In cases when repositories meet The National Archives' Standard for Record Repositories, and have in place a satisfactory long term strategy for the care of and access to the archives in its custody, we will award The National Archives Approval.

For further information about this service see our leaflet:

Inspection services for archive repositories (PDF, 58.95kb)

This page contains PDF files. See plug-ins and file formats for help in accessing these file types.