Documents at risk from handling and storage
Records management code
Section 46 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 requires the Lord Chancellor to issue a Code of Practice on the management of records.
First published in November 2002, the code was revised and re-issued in July 2009.
The code is in two parts: Part I sets out good practice in records management and applies to all public authorities covered by the Act, and also to bodies that are not FOI authorities but are bodies subject to the Public Records Act 1958 or the Public Records Act (Northern Ireland) 1923.
Part II sets out how public records (records subject to the two Public Records Acts) are to be reviewed and transferred to The National Archives, the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland or another place of deposit for public records.
Find out more about the Freedom of Information Act.
The National Archives is working to promote compliance with the Code of Practice on the Management of Records in all public authorities:
Central government
For central government, a programme has been developed to identify the levels of risk faced by departments through failure to comply with the code. Find out more on information management assessments.
Public authorities
An evaluation workbook and methodology and an automated support tool have been developed to help all public authorities assess their records management against the code. They are currently being updated to reflect changes in the revised code.
Section 46 code: Implementation guides for records managers
To help public authorities comply with the Code of Practice, The National Archives has developed a series of practical and easy to use implementation guides. We intend to revise them to reflect changes in the revised code.
Model action plans
The National Archives produced, or collaborated in the production of, a series of model action plans to help public sector bodies achieve compliance with the code.
The model action plans related to the 2002 code and have been withdrawn. However, you can still access them for reference in the UK Government Web Archive.
Other guidance to help implement Freedom of Information
Redaction toolkit: guidelines for editing exempt information from paper and electronic documents prior to release.
Model retention schedule: a schedule for records created in the course of handling FOI requests identifying how long they should be kept.
Operational selection policies: apply the criteria set out in the Acquisition policy to the records of individual departments and agencies. An OSP on the selection of public records generated by the processing of Freedom of Information Act (FOI) access requests and on the selection of the information that has been requested:
- OSP37: Freedom of Information Act records (PDF, 55.33kb)
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