The National Archives
Search The National Archives
Advanced search

2 June 2006

The thirty-sixth meeting of the United Kingdom Inter-Departmental Archives Committee (IDAC) took place at the Family Records Centre on 2 June 2006.

Return to list

The following items were considered:

The Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) and Archives

The HLF made a presentation on the work of the Fund in relation to the archives sector, which has received £100 million in grants since 1994. The Fund is currently consulting on its Strategic Plan for 2008-2013: overall funding available is likely to decline, but will remain substantial, and there has been general support for existing priorities.

Key strategic issues identified by HLF are the need to manage demand by spreading major applications more evenly; film archives; and building capacity for developing quality applications in the archive sector. Potential solutions to the latter problem were discussed and will be investigated further by TNA. MLA will meet HLF shortly to discuss co-ordination of community archives bids. 

The HLF also reported that it was considering changes in procedures to facilitate applications in respect of acquisitions, particularly in cases where timescales are limited.

There was also discussion of the difficulties created by HLF's requirement for additionality, and the potential conflict in priorities between the need for an expansion of on-line access and for major capital projects. These will be followed up at the next meeting of the aUK consortium.

Developing UK National Standards for Archives

It was agreed that a standards-based approach would be useful in supporting various performance initiatives across the UK, and that  working party of members would meet in the autumn to discuss the development of the current TNA Standard to create a UK National Standard. TNA is also working with the Film Archive Forum and other relevant bodies to develop similar standards for audio-visual archives, and the updated version of the Access Standard will also be available shortly.

European Archives Group

Representatives from each EU country and the five EU institutions met for the first time in Brussels on 28 April. Various working groups aim to report back to the Commission within 2-3 years on five priority areas (preservation; co-operation on electronic records; EU internet gateway for archives; best practice in access management; theft prevention). The Commission has agreed to fund the working groups, but as yet no one has agreed to lead the gateway project.

DLM Forum

Next meeting will be held in Helsinki in November. Funding for MoReq2 (EU- wide functional requirements for electronic records management) has now been agreed. Work will start in autumn, to finish by July 2007. It is agreed that a testing regime will be needed.

Government Consultations

Co-ordinated evidence has been submitted by the library and archives domains to the Gowers review of intellectual property. The British Library is involved in a study by the Institute of Public Policy Research on the public interest aspects of intellectual property. Independence for Statistics: the statistical functions of ONS are to be established as an independent non-ministerial department, with the registration function probably hived off in some form.

Creation of a Virtual IDAC

It has been agreed that the existing quarterly meetings will be replaced by a quarterly e-mail circulation among members, supplemented by an annual meeting in a different format, to focus on specific issues.

Updates

Northern Ireland update:

  • As of 1 April 2006, PRONI ceased to be an executive agency and became part of the core Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure.
  • Over the next few years PRONI staffing will reduce from 103.6 to 89 under the Fit for Purpose reform programme. In a separate exercise, there will be a fundamental review intended to equip PRONI to meet a range of challenges.
  • The NI Review of Public Administration will reduce the number of local authorities and NDPBs, and PRONI will have a key role in related records management issues.
  • New PRONI accommodation has been approved subject to the availability of budgetary resources.
  • Scanning of historical Ordnance Survey maps is nearly complete

Scotland update:

  • NAS is now to be part of the Ministry of Culture, Tourism and Sport . which will create opportunities for co-operation between NAS and the other four main national collections.
  • A new Culture Bill, drafted for May 2007, would change the name and status of the Royal Commission on Historic Monuments and the governance of the National Library.
  • NAS met with the Scottish Information Commissioner to review the memorandum of understanding on how NAS will carry out investigations of poor records management, the s.61 Code of Practice for records management and the model action plan under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act
  • Work on the ScotlandsPeople Centre has been delayed by six months (to mid 2007) due to the main contractor going into receivership. The delay would have been much longer but for successful implementation of contingency plans.

Wales update:

  • The Assembly received 302 FOI requests in the first 4 months of 2006
  • The transfer of nearly 4000 staff from various bodies now amalgamated with the Welsh Assembly Government raised significant records issues, including the need for further FOI training, the transfer of 10,000 boxes of unregistered files and changes in IT provision.
  • CYMAL is currently mapping community archives in a similar way to MLA for England: the research officer is developing a lottery bid.
  • Awards of funding have been received from the AHRC and ESRC re the contribution of museums and archives to culture and a strategy for research in Welsh Universities on the cultural sector, focussed on user needs has been drawn up.

British Library update:

  • Major recent acquisitions include My Ladye Nevell's Booke, and the Burdett-Coutts, Angela Carter and Fox Talbot papers.
  • There will be a major conference major conference on the preservation of English literary manuscripts at the British Library on 19-20th October.
  • The UK Web Archiving Consortium will continue on the present basis for a further year, due to slow progress towards legal deposit regulations.
  • The co-operation of the library and archive domains in conservation research received much positive comment from the House of Lords Science and Technology Committee: it is planned to build on this with the AHRC and English Heritage over the summer.
  • A feasibility study for an automated cataloguing system for archives at the BL will be completed by the end of September.

The National Council on Archives update:

  • The Archives Awareness Campaign (AAC) event with David Lammy last year was highly successful
  • Staff changes are causing some problems with this year's campaign: offers of further assistance would be welcome, and local archives will need to promote their own press coverage.
  • Staff changes have led to a review of job descriptions and roles: a new post to work with AAC has been proposed.
  • The on-line petition for archives is now complete and will be presented to government jointly with the Society of Archivists soon, along with associated lobbying on funding.
  • Discussions have taken place with the SoA and other bodies with a view to rationalising activity in archives

Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA) update:

  • Formation of the MLA Partnership (MLAP) has been completed, along with re-branding, for greater co-ordination and impact.
  • A paper to the MLAP Strategy Group (regional CEOs and Executive Board ) proposes focusing archives activity for the 2007 spending round on strengthening local authority archives and the designated collections, and encouraging partnerships with other types of archives to modernise and improve services.
  • A meeting has been held with TNA to clarify respective roles.
  • MLA has joined the Film Heritage Group with the aim of encouraging greater co-ordination and investment. Additional funding for film archives is being sought through Their Past, Your Future.
  • MLA is working with the Museums Documentation Association on developing Collections Link, a virtual centre for conservation expertise.

Department for Culture, Media and Sport update:

  • DCMS is organising a meeting with MLA, NCA and TNA in late June with a view to co-ordinating opportunities to raise the profile of archives for the year ahead.

The National Archives (TNA) update:

  • 4,961 FOI requests were received and one third of closed records were pro-actively opened in the first year. TNA was able to raise the digital preservation issue with the Constitutional Affairs select committee, which commented favourably on TNA performance in handling requests.
  • DCA review of FOI: TNA intends to sustain momentum in promoting records management, especially electronic records management in the public sector, where preservation issues have not been fully understood. TNA is developing a business case for a Shared Services joint preservation facility for other departments, which might also be available to local authorities.
  • TNA's new Vision document will be drafted by the end of June for consultation with staff and stakeholders over the summer. Main themes will be TNA's role in preserving records for future generations, in leading information management across government and the wider archive sector, and providing universal access, increasingly through personalised online services, but the detail is evolving.
  • TNA is working with MLA on advocacy and leadership with a view to clarifying respective roles. The aim is to produce a joint advocacy plan for the year ahead.
  • Liz Hallam-Smith has moved to House of Lords as Director of Information Services and Wilma Jones has retired. The Executive Team now consists of James Strachan (Public Services and Marketing) Mark Lamb (Human Resources and Organisational Development) Erika Stoddart (Finance) and David Thomas (Collections & Technology).
  • Self-assessment for local authority archive services in England and Wales: the final questionnaire (110 questions) will be issued in mid-June, for return by the end of July. This may help identify those services particularly affected by the current spending round.
  • aUK: the scope has been reduced and a modular approach adopted to match likely available external funding resources.
  • TNA and MLA are to produce a draft archives policy framework document to replace the draft UK Records and Archives Development Plan.