West Yorkshire Archive Service and Tong Street Thursday Club community group

Assessing records management in public authorities

The Freedom of Information Act encourages all public authorities to maintain their records in accordance with the provisions of a Code of Practice issued by the Lord Chancellor under section 46 of the Act (the Records Management Code).

Complying with the Records Management Code: evaluation workbook and methodology

The National Archives has developed an evaluation workbook and an automated support tool to assist public authorities in assessing conformance of their record management systems to the Records Management Code.

The benefit of completing the self-assessment is that it gives an authority a clear statement on the extent that its records management practices conform to the Records Management Code. Where partial or non-compliance is identified, the authority could be at risk of not being able to meet its obligations under the Freedom of Information Act or fulfil its corporate functions, both of which are important issues in democratic accountability. If this is the case the self-assessment can be used to demonstrate to senior managers the level of risk the authority is at and appropriate strategies to eliminate the risks with support from management can be put in place.

The automated support tool for going through self-assessment according to the workbook and producing the results is downloadable:

• TNA s.46 assessment support tool (, 932.50kb)

The workbook itself provides fuller explanation of the self-assessment process and of the individual questions. It is available below in English and Welsh.

• Download this document in full as a PDF (PDF, 907.37kb)

• Download this document in full as a RTF (RTF, 3447.84kb)

You can also download the document by sections:

• Summary and Introduction (PDF, 75.55kb)

• How to use this Workbook (PDF, 96.00kb)

• Module 1: Records management function (PDF, 63.04kb)

• Module 2: Record Management policy statement (PDF, 134.94kb)

• Module 3: Roles, responsibilities, training and awareness (PDF, 113.68kb)

• Module 4: Active records management: records creation and record keeping (PDF, 108.32kb)

• Module 5: Records maintenance (PDF, 113.89kb)

• Module 6: Records disposal (PDF, 104.01kb)

• Module 7: Access regimes for managing FOI requests (PDF, 110.74kb)

• Module 8: Performance measurement (PDF, 102.55kb)

• Risk evaluation and development of mitigation strategies (PDF, 114.26kb)

• Sector specific guidance for records managers (PDF, 108.83kb)

Cydymffurfio â'r Cod Rheoli Cofnodion: Llyfr Gwaith Gwerthuso a Methodoleg

• Cael Cydymffurfio â'r Cod Rheoli Cofnodion fersiwn PDF o'r ddogfen (PDF, 791.26kb)

• Cael Cydymffurfio â'r Cod Rheoli Cofnodion fersiwn RTF o'r ddogfen (RTF, 3445.50kb)

You can also download the document by sections:

• Crynodeb a Cyflwyniad (PDF, 108.69kb)

• Sut i ddefnyddio'r Llyfr Gwaith hwn (PDF, 152.19kb)

• Modiwl 1: Swyddogaeth rheoli cofnodion (PDF, 79.22kb)

• Modiwl 2: Datganiad polisi Rheoli Cofnodion (PDF, 220.89kb)

• Modiwl 3: Swyddogaethau, cyfrifoldebau, hyfforddiant ac ymwybyddiaeth (PDF, 199.77kb)

• Modiwl 4: Rheoli cofnodion: creu a chadw cofnodion (PDF, 196.27kb)

• Modiwl 5: Cynnal cofnodion (PDF, 120.58kb)

• Modiwl 6: Gwaredu cofnodion (PDF, 186.72kb)

• Modiwl 7: Trefniadau mynediad i reoli ceisiadau RhG (PDF, 194.58kb)

• Modiwl 8: Mesur perfformiad (PDF, 196.51kb)

• Gwerthuso risg a datblygu strategaethau lliniaru (PDF, 154.96kb)

• Canllawiau sector-benodol i reolwyr cofnodion (PDF, 224.64kb)

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