Template for preparing Letter Code, Series and Piece number labels.

Form for ordering stationery materials from The National Archives for use in preparing physical records for transfer.

Guidance on preparing physical records for transfer for records management staff from all government departments and agencies transferring records to The National Archives.

The UK Government Licensing Framework (UKGLF) provides a policy and legal overview of the arrangements for licensing the use and re-use of public sector information, both in central government and the wider public sector. It sets out best practice, standardises the licensing principles for government information, mandates the Open Government Licence (OGL) as the default licence for Crown bodies and recommends OGL for other public sector bodies.

The UKGLF and OGL form part of the Government’s drive to open up access to publicly held information and data, promoting transparency and enabling wider economic and social gain. The UKGLF and the OGL support the Government’s open government and open data policies, and the Re-use of Public Sector Information Regulations 2015.

Transfer Digital Records (TDR) is The National Archives’ new digital transfer service that helps transferring bodies (government departments and other organisations subject to the Public Records Act) upload, prepare and transfer their selected digital public records to The National Archives for permanent preservation.

TDR is a browser-based preparation area where records are uploaded and prepared for transfer. Records uploaded in TDR continue to be the responsibility of and owned by the transferring body. At the end of the preparation process, the transferring body agrees to transfer legal custody of the records to The National Archives. Up until this point, the records are not held by The National Archives for the purposes of the Freedom of Information Act, and any FOI requests must be directed to the transferring body.

TDR is a service that will replace the DROID and encrypted HDD (Hard Disk Drive) method of transfer in most cases. Transferring bodies using TDR are not required to download the DROID software because these tools are built into the TDR system.

If you are a transferring body and have any questions about the service or wish to discuss a transfer, please contact TDR@nationalarchives.gov.uk.

TDR now available

The TDR service is now available to be used by any transferring body wanting to transfer their digital public records to The National Archives.

The service allows transferring bodies to upload public records via a web browser. TDR automatically collects technical metadata that captures and preserves the integrity of the record. After the records have been uploaded, transferring bodies have the option to add more metadata, including records descriptions and closure information.

TDR is currently at public beta stage and its functionality is continuously developing. At the moment, we still ask transferring bodies, both new and existing users, to contact us before transferring records through TDR.

How do I access TDR?

The service has been developed to support transferring bodies who want to transfer their digital public records to The National Archives.

The onboarding process requires new users to register for a TDR account. Once your account has been set up, you will be able to access and use the TDR service to transfer your digital public records to The National Archives.

We recommend that users follow the relevant guide and FAQs that are linked further down this page (see ‘Further guidance and FAQs’).

Users of TDR should start here: https://tdr.nationalarchives.gov.uk/

Please contact our team who can assist you with setting up your account, or to discuss a transfer you are planning to make.

When can I transfer my records?

For digital records, we are happy to take early transfer of material, there is no need to wait for the 20-year rule to apply. TDR has been developed with the aim of making transfers efficient and seamless. The National Archives strongly encourages and supports transferring bodies to transfer selected digital records as often as required using a ‘little and often’ approach. With TDR we no longer advise delaying until there is a large batch to transfer, the service can efficiently handle multiple transfers of small consignments.

What environments can I transfer from?

The TDR service currently accepts transfers of digital records from network drive or local hard drive environments.

Our teams are currently researching cloud-to-TDR transfer as part of our endeavour to expand the service’s capability to accept records directly from cloud environments.

What technical metadata is automatically captured by TDR?

The TDR service automatically captures technical metadata about your files, which include:

File path (identifier)
File name (title)
Date last modified
File/Folder
Checksum

What developments are planned for TDR?

Our team are researching new ways to expand the functionality of TDR. This includes research into faster, easier ways of adding large quantities of metadata and cloud-to-TDR transfers.

Over time, we will continue to develop the service in consultation with our users and will add support for more complex record types.

If you are a transferring body and would like to be involved in user research, and/or would like to trial TDR, please contact us at tdr@nationalarchives.gov.uk.

What if my digital records do not meet current TDR requirements?

The National Archives still offers the DROID/encrypted HDD method for transfers of records that are outside the current scope of TDR. This includes very large transfers. We are continually expanding the capability of TDR and most transfers should now use TDR as the preferred method.

What are TDR’s security and accessibility standards?

TDR has undergone security testing, consultation, and applies relevant standards, including the following:

CHECK Penetration testing: https://www.ncsc.gov.uk/information/check-penetration-testing
TDR follows the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) principles
External security consultation
The National Archives’ internal security accreditation
Internal security reviews
Multi-factor authentication is a requirement for users of TDR

TDR has passed its GDS Public Beta service assessment and has undergone accessibility testing to cover the user journey to complete a transfer. The service has been assessed against Web Content Accessibility Guidelines WCAG 2.1.

For more information please read TDR’s Accessibility Statement.

Further guidance and FAQs

The National Archives provides further guidance and FAQs on transferring digital records using the TDR service. Please note that we have split these resources into two streams:

Government
Court and tribunal judgment users

Government users are defined as users of TDR who transfer their selected digital public records under section 3 of the Public Records Act 1958.

Government users’ transferred digital public records will be listed on The National Archives’ catalogue, Discovery.

Court and tribunal judgment users are defined as users of TDR who transfer their court judgments and tribunal decisions under section 8 of the Public Records Act 1958.

Transferred court judgments and tribunal decisions will be accessible from the Find case law service.

Please follow the relevant guidance and FAQ links for more information, tailored to your record type and user journey.

Government user TDR guide and FAQs

If you are a government user of TDR, please use the links below for your tailored guide and FAQs:

Court and tribunal judgment user TDR guide and FAQs

If you are a court and tribunal judgment user of TDR, please use the links below for your tailored guide and FAQs:

Licensing income allocation

The National Archives has central responsibility for the management of the Crown’s copyright and database rights. Most licensing is under the non-transactional Open Government Licence (OGL). Some government organisations have delegations of authority from the Keeper of Public Records to license the re-use of Crown copyright or database right material that they produce. Any income generated by this licensing activity is collected and retained by these organisations.

The National Archives is responsible for the arrangements for the collection and allocation of any legacy income that has been generated by the licensing of Crown copyright material originated by departments and agencies, prior to the introduction of the OGL and that do not have delegated authority.

Most legacy licensing income that we collect will be allocated to the department or agency that originated the material. These payments are made twice a year in October and May. We send departments the payments together with a summary statement showing the licences that are covered, the material used and the sums generated by each licence. Where the total payment due to a department in any accounting period is less than £50 it is carried forward to the next accounting period. All sums, regardless of value, are paid at the year end for Resource Accounting purposes.

Exceptions to these arrangements:

Where there is insufficient analysis on statements that we receive from licence holders to identify the originating department. This most commonly arises in the context of central licensing schemes negotiated through collecting agencies such as the Copyright Licensing Agency (CLA).
Where extra analysis is required to identify the originating department, and the total payment due is less than £50.
Where the department that originated the material no longer exists and there is no obvious successor department.

Where these circumstances arise, we retain the licensing income. Any income received, which is not related to Crown copyright re-use, is returned.

In digital transfer we differentiate between born-digital records and digitised representations of paper records.

This page introduces some of the types of born-digital records that The National Archives would preserve and make available, along with metadata to these records. The latter might be descriptive metadata, which becomes part of the catalogue entry for the record and governs access and use of the record, or technical metadata, which is necessary in the context of preserving the record for long-term access.

What are born-digital records?

Born-digital records are records that have been natively created in digital format (rather than digitised from paper records).

Examples of born-digital information include:

email
text-based documents (for example Word documents, Google documents)
presentations (for example PowerPoint)
spreadsheets (for example Excel)
PDFs
images and videos
CAD drawings
3D models
data sets and data bases

What is metadata?

Data about the record such as the last date modified and the file title. This is the information that forms the catalogue entry for the record.

Examples of metadata include:

identifier, for example a file path
file title
file format
dates, for example the date of creation, the date last modified, the date last accessed
checksum
closure information, if applicable, e.g. the retention period or the exemption applied
description
copyright information
protective marking

Introduction – Access to public records at The National Archives and other places of deposit

The aim of the guidance linked below is to supplement regarding the transfer of public records to The National Archives and other places of deposit. It should be used as a reference tool by those involved in the sensitivity review of records and the transfer of closed records. The guidance is intended primarily for the transfer of public records held by government departments to The National Archives or other places of deposit, but the principles and examples may also be relevant to the transfer of non-public records.

Records are transferred to The National Archives and other places of deposit under the Public Records Act 1958 (PRA).

The Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA) governs public access to public records, and these are transferred ‘open on transfer’ unless alternatives are in place. When the information in those records is environmental information, as defined in the Environmental Information Regulations 2004, public access is governed by those regulations, which are similar but not identical to the FOIA. For simplicity, FOIA is used throughout, with Environmental Information Regulations specified only when provisions differ.

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) issues guidance on FOIA exemptions (the reasons to withhold information). The Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) issues guidance on the Environmental Information Regulations.

Part 3 of the code of practice on the management of records under section 46 of the FOIA sets out how records should be transferred to archives services.

For more information please contact the Access Team: scheduleapplications@nationalarchives.gov.uk or for advice and guidance on digital records closures please consult the Digital Transfer Team: governmenttransfers@nationalarchives.gov.uk.

Guidance

What are public records, and who is responsible for them (PDF, 0.18 MB)

Principles for determining the access status of records on transfer (PDF, 0.1 MB)

Freedom of Information exemptions (PDF, 0.16 MB)

Data Protection and personal information (PDF, 0.12 MB)

Procedures for closure on transfer (PDF, 0.12 MB)

Retention (PDF, 0.18 MB)

Redaction considerations (PDF, 0.1 MB)

Retention applications for legacy records – for use when completing templates for applications and update forms (PDF, 0.37 MB)

Forms

Closure at transfer application (DOC, 0.1 MB)

Closure at transfer application (XLS, 0.04 MB)

Application to Retain Records under Section 3(4) of the Public Records Act 1958 (Doc, 0.1 MB)

Application to retain under s3(4) of the Public Record Act 1958 (XLS, 0.04 MB)

Template for application to retain legacy records – for use when submitting applications to The Advisory Council on National Records and Archives (DOC, 0.04 MB)

Template for update on retention of legacy records – for use when updating The Advisory Council on National Records and Archives (DOC, 0.04 MB)

Operational selection policies (OSPs) apply the criteria set out in the Records collection policy to the records of individual departments and agencies or to records relating to a cross-departmental theme. Operational selection policies are normally the subject of public consultation. Alternatively you can see the operational selection policies listed by OSP number.