Inspection and liaison

Inspection and liaison work is one of our primary functions in supporting the archival community in the delivery of its services.

We use The National Archives' Standard for Record Repositories as the basis of our inspections and advisory work. We have also brought together a range of other standards and best practice guidance in the supporting Framework of Standards, which covers a wider range of more specialised guidance which we use when relevant.

See our section on inspections for further information.

The archives advisory team also liaise with and advise a wide variety of record keeping bodies on all aspects of best practice and the implementation of standards. This ranges from strategic issues to day-to-day matters.

There is a legal framework in which we operate. For an overview of the legislation that has an impact on archives and the provision of archive services see our section on Policy and Legislation.