This page is for re-users of government information. You will find information from The National Archives and other resources.
The National Archives’ resources
- Guidance on the Re-use of Public Sector Information Regulations 2015
- Links between access and re-use (updated 2015) (PDF, 130 KB)
- Public task guidance
- Checklist – get ready for re-use (PDF, 90.8 KB)
- Scope of the Re-use of Public Sector Information Regulations 2015 flowchart (PDF, 64 KB)
- Information asset lists (PDF, 31.2 KB)
- Glossary of PSI re-use terms (PDF, 163 KB)
- Template form for requesting re-use (for public sector bodies to adapt) (Word document, 48.5 KB)
- Template statement on re-use for public sector bodies (PDF, 130 KB)
See older reports from The National Archives in the UK Government Web Archive.
External reports and resources
- Getting smarter: a strategy for knowledge and innovation assets in the public sector (The Mackintosh Report) – HM Treasury, 2021
- Open Data Barometer 2017 Leaders Edition – World Wide Web Foundation
- Guide to RPSI – Information Commissioner’s Office
- Managing Public Money – HM Treasury (see especially Annex 6.2, Charging for Information)
- Managing Public Money NI – Department of Finance (see especially Annex 6.2, Charging for Information)
- Scottish Public Finance Manual – Scottish Government (see especially Annex 3, Charging for Information)
- Managing Welsh Public Money – Welsh Government (see especially Annex 6.2, Charging for Information)
- G8 Open Data Charter
- Government response to the Shakespeare review of Public Sector Information
- Shakespeare review – an independent review of Public Sector Information
- Market Assessment of Public Sector Information
- Implementing the Transparency Agenda – Public Accounts Committee report
- Implementing Transparency – cross-government review by the National Audit Office
- A Right to Data: Fulfilling the promise of open public data in the UK – Policy Exchange report note
- Transparent Government, Not Transparent Citizens – report of the independent transparency and privacy review
- Digital Britain report
- Operational Efficiency Programme final report
- Power of Information
- ‘Cambridge Report’ Models of Public Sector Information Provision via Trading Funds
- Commercial Use of Public Information – 2015 evaluation of the OFT market study
- CUPI 2006 Office of Fair Trade report
Other organisations
Legislation and Regulations
Public sector information (PSI) is information produced by central and local government or any other public body.
Any information (content) whatever its medium (form) – including print, digital or electronic, and sound recordings – produced, held or disseminated by a public sector body is considered PSI. This includes an enormous range: corporate information such as reports and financial data, codes of practice, public records, statistics, still and moving images, press releases, artefacts, publication schemes, and so on. Computer programs are not included in the definition of PSI.
A framework for enabling the re-use of this PSI is provided by the Re-use of Public Sector Information Regulations 2015. Guidance on these Regulations is available for public sector and cultural sector bodies and for re-users. Most PSI is made available for re-use by providing it under Open Government Licence terms.
Learn about re-using public sector information (PSI), licensing and copyright, and more.
The Parochial Registers and Records Measure 1978, passed by the General Synod of the Church of England, was a step to ensure the long-term care and preservation of and access to parish records. It was a response to the interest and use of parish records in historical research, recognition that church employees did not necessarily have the skills or appropriate storage conditions to care for parish records, and the development of archival services in the country.
In the Parochial Registers and Records Measure 1929, a diocese record office was defined as a church-owned building. However, the 1978 measure aimed to draw on the network of records offices that were subsequently established throughout the country and the Local Government (Records) Act 1962, which allowed local authority record offices to acquire and care for records of local significance.
The principal duties imposed Parochial Registers and Records Measure 1978 were:
- one or more diocesan record office be designated to serve the diocese (S.7)
- all non-current registers and records which are over 100 year old must be deposited in the Diocesan Record Office and registers whose earliest entry are 150 years old (S.10)
- those records that are not deposited must be afforded care in regard the conditions they are kept in and should be subject to five yearly inspections by inspectors appointed by the bishop (S.11)
- register books or baptisms and burials to be available for research within reasonable working hours in the diocesan record offices (S.20). An amendment in the Church of England (Miscellaneous Provisions) Measure 1992 allowed for diocesan record office to produce surrogate copies rather than the originals
View the Parochial Registers and Records Measure 1978, as amended to 2003.
Local Government (Records) Act 1962
The Local Government (Records) Act 1962 (LGRA 1962) confers limited discretionary powers for local authorities to provide certain archives services. Section 1(1) of this Act says that ‘a local authority may do all such things as appear to it necessary or expedient for enabling adequate use to be made of records under its control’.
It goes on to refer to allowing inspection and copying of records, preparing indexes and guides to them and publishing and exhibiting them. The Act refers solely to the service provision aspect of archive offices’ work, not to their stewardship obligations nor any wider responsibilities and functions. In addition the Act empowers them to acquire records of local significance over and above their own administrative records, care for them and make them available for study by the public.
This Act has been successively amended to cover all county councils, all London boroughs, metropolitan districts and unitary councils.
View the Local Government (Records) Act 1962, as amended to 2003
Some local authorities which are not covered by the 1962 Act hold collections of archives under the Public Libraries and Museums Act 1964. Library authorities are empowered to hold collections of archives as long as this does not become their dominant function.
Local Government Act 1972
The Local Government Act 1972 (s.224) requires local authorities to ‘make proper arrangements with respect to any documents that belong to or are in the custody of the council of any of their officers’. In 1999 the Department for the Environment, Transport and the Regions (now the Department for Communities and Local Government) issued guidance on the interpretation of the term ‘proper arrangements’.
The guidance includes sections on the management of a local authority’s administrative records, whether kept on paper or in electronic form, and proper arrangements for those records which have enduring historical value and which should be kept by an established archive service.
Relevant sections of the Local Government Act 1972 (PDF, 0.05Mb)
See Guidance on ‘proper arrangements’ for archives
Local Government (Wales) Act 1994
The Local Government (Wales) Act 1994 (s.60) required all the new unitary authorities in Wales to submit schemes for their proposed delivery of archive services, to the Secretary of State. Following the reorganisation of local authorities in Wales the new principal councils should make and maintain schemes setting out ‘their arrangements for the proper care, preservation and management of their records’, including details of any shared arrangements. All schemes must be kept under review and modified if considered appropriate.
The scope of this act covers any documents, in whatever form and in whatever medium, which convey or are capable of conveying information, which belongs to the council or of which they have custody of as well as those that have been retained for reference and research purposes, or because of their likely historical interest.
View the Local Government (Wales) Act 1994.
Additional requirements with regard to access to information in records and archives, affecting local and regional authorities, have been imposed through the Data Protection Act 1998, the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and the Environmental Information Regulations. These include a statutory right for the citizen of access to information, subject to certain exemptions and conditions.
There are a number of acts and statutory instruments that go some way towards safeguarding historical records, but in many cases the wording is open to interpretation. This section outlines the main acts, statutory instruments and Measures of the Church of England that have an impact on the care and custody of records.
The Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts was appointed under Royal Warrant in 1869 to make enquiry as to the places where manuscripts and private papers of historical interest were located and to report on their contents. The terms of reference were extended in 1959 to include the commission’s current functions.
With the creation of The National Archives in April 2003, the warrant was amended to allow the Keeper of Public Records to become the sole Historical Manuscripts Commissioner. Read the warrant:
ELIZABETH THE SECOND, by the Grace of God of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and of Our other Realms and Territories QUEEN, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith, To all to whom these Presents shall come,
Greeting!
WHEREAS it was represented to Her late Majesty Queen Victoria that there were belonging to many Institutions and Private Families various Collections of Manuscripts and Papers of general Public Interest a knowledge of which would be of great utility in the illustration of History, Constitutional Law, Science and general Literature; that in some cases these Papers were liable to be lost or obliterated, and that many of the possessors of such Manuscripts would be willing to give access to them and permit their contents to be made public provided that nothing of a private character or relating to the Title of existing owners, should be divulged:
AND WHEREAS it appeared to Her Majesty that there would be considerable public advantage in it being generally known where such Manuscripts and Papers were deposited, and that the contents of those which tended to the elucidation of History, and the illustration of Constitutional Law, Science and Literature, should be published; Her Majesty did accordingly, by Royal Warrant bearing the date the second day of April, one thousand eight hundred and sixty-nine, appoint Commissioners to make inquiry as to the places in which such Manuscripts and Papers were deposited, and for any of the purposes therein mentioned:
AND WHEREAS by Royal Warrants bearing date the eighteenth day of December, one thousand eight hundred and ninety-seven and the twenty-seventh day of March, one thousand nine hundred and nineteen, new Commissions were issued for the purposes specified in the original Commission above referred to:
AND WHEREAS by Warrant under Our Royal Sign Manual bearing date the fifth day of December, one thousand nine hundred and fifty-nine, We deemed it expedient that the terms of reference to Our said Commissioners should be revised and extended:
AND WHEREAS We have deemed it expedient that the responsibilities of the said Commission be exercised by a sole Historical Manuscripts Commissioner.
NOW KNOW YE that We do by these Presents will and ordain that Sarah Jacqueline Tyacke, for so long as she shall hold the Office of Keeper of Public Records, and any persons who shall succeed her in that Office, for so long as they shall hold it, shall act as sole Historical Manuscripts Commissioner, and accordingly We authorise and require Our said Commissioners hitherto appointed and still holding office to cease to exercise the powers and privileges conferred upon them as Chairman and Members of the said Commission.
AND We do further by these presents Will and Ordain that Our said Commissioner shall make enquiry as to the existence and location of manuscripts, including records or archives of all kinds, of value for the study of history, other than records which are for the time being public records by virtue of the Public Records Acts; with the consent of the owners or custodians inspect and report on them; with the consent of the owners or custodians reproduce and publish or assist the publication of such reports; record particulars of such manuscripts and records in a national register thereof; promote and assist the proper preservation and storage of such manuscripts and records; assist those wishing to use such manuscripts or records for study or research; consider and advise upon general questions relating to the location, preservation and use of such manuscripts and records; and promote the co-ordinated action of all professional and other bodies concerned with the, preservation and use of such manuscripts and records.
The Freedom of Information Act gives rights of access to a wide range of information. However, rights of access to environmental information are provided by a separate statutory regime, the Environmental Information Regulations.
Find out about requesting information under the regulations.
Data protection law changed from May 2018 with the passing of the Data Protection Act 2018 and taking effect of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Information and resources can be found on the Information Commissioner’s website. There is special provision in the new laws for the archiving of personal data in the public interest. Further advice and guidance is available for the archives sector.
Guide to archiving personal data
The National Archives, in conjunction with government archiving policy leads and the Archives and Records Association, has prepared a guide to assist those working with the provision and exemptions for archiving found in the new data protection law.
The guide has now been published in its final version following a period of public comment.
The guide to archiving personal data is also available in Welsh (PDF, 1.16MB).
Data protection toolkit for archive services
The National Archives has produced a Data Protection legislation toolkit to assist archivists dealing with data protection requests and issues arising from their collections.
You can sign up to access the Toolkit using enrolment key ‘Data Protection Toolkit’, and then login through TNA’s e-learning site.
The access provisions of the Freedom of Information Act came fully into force in January 2005. The Act replaced the access provisions for UK public records set out in the Public Records Act 1958-1967. The Act also governs access to information held by most public sector bodies. Scottish bodies are covered by the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002.
A full list of bodies covered by Freedom of Information (FOI) is available on the Ministry of Justice website. The website also contains general guidance on implementing and using the Act.
Freedom of Information and records management
The Lord Chancellor has issued two Codes of Practice under the Act.
The section 45 Code sets out good practice in handling requests for information. It also includes a section on Freedom of Information and public sector contracts.
The section 46 Code is a technical document aimed at supporting management of public authority records and information under the Act. The Code places information management in the context of broad principles, providing an accessible framework which outlines how authorities should best manage their information to support appropriate public access under the Act. The Code also clarifies the basis on which the Advisory Council on National Records and Archives operates.
The Information Commissioner and the Chief Executive of The National Archives have signed a Memorandum of Understanding setting out how they will work together on promoting and monitoring the records management code:
The Memorandum is under review. An updated version will be available later this year in line with data protection reform.
Paragraph 19 of the Memorandum sets out that the Information Commissioner and the Chief Executive of The National Archives will share knowledge, expertise, best practice and intelligence in relation to matters of mutual interest. How this commitment will apply when the Information Commissioner issues a practice recommendation under the Freedom of Information Act is described within the consultation process agreement:
ICO TNA practice recommendation consultation process 2023 (PDF, 0.11 MB)
Guidance for records managers
The National Archives is working to promote compliance with the Code of Practice on the Management of Records in all public authorities. Our guidance for records managers includes:
- a set of guides to each aspect of the Code
- an evaluation workbook to help authorities in the wider public sector assess their records management against the Code
- a programme to assess levels of risk faced by government departments through failure to comply with the Code
Guidance for archive services and places of deposit
Freedom of Information has affected archive provision by both public records and private collections held in public institutions and places of deposit. The National Archives has produced guidance for archivists on how Freedom of Information has affected the management of these records and how to handle access requests:
Freedom of Information, Copyright and copying of records held in archives (PDF, 0.03 MB)
All our guidance on Freedom of Information can also be found in our guidance A-Z.