APPENDIX G
Letter to the Clerk of the Committee from the
National Council on Archives dated 29 October 2004
National Council on Archives (NCA) Proposed Framework
for Storage, Preservation and Access to Local Registration Records
During our oral evidence session on Tuesday 26th
October the Committee asked the NCA to put on paper its proposals
about a regulatory framework for the storage, preservation, and
access to Local Registration Records. We very much welcome the
opportunity to do so
It is our understanding that the Committee wanted
us to outline a regulatory scheme that would provide for both
an improved and more consistent standard of service for the storage,
preservation and access to local registration records.
We recognise that any regulatory framework for the
records would need to placed within the context of the overall
framework of standards and regulation to be agreed between the
Registrar General and the local registration authority.
The Government is currently proposing a national
standard for local registration services developed and underpinned
by a statutory Code of Practice which forms Schedule 4 of the
Order. As a starting point, the Code of Practice needs amendment
so that any regulatory framework for the records has a statutory
foundation. Presently, Schedule 4 includes a sentence that reads
"A registration authority must ensure that there are proper
arrangements in place for the storage of registration records".
We would urge the Committee to ask the Government to insert the
words "storage, preservation, and access to," instead
of "storage of" so that the whole reads: "A
registration authority must ensure that there are proper arrangements
in place for the storage, preservation, and access to, registration
records". From our perspective, this wording is essential
if the regulatory framework is to have a statutory foundation
and to carry any weight.
At this stage, we support the Government's proposal
that the Audit Commission would be responsible for independent
monitoring of performance under the Code of Practice.
However, we suggest that what is needed, above and
beyond the application and policing of a national standard, is
a specific scheme for each locality that encourages a more proactive
consideration of the needs of records and their users by registration
authorities.
We propose that each registration authority (or groups
of registration authorities making joint arrangements, e.g. with
a single local authority record office) should be required to
submit a scheme for the access and preservation of registration
records for approval by the Registrar General. The schemes should
be based upon national guidance (which could be incorporated in
the National Standard) to be issued by the Registrar General with
input from The National Archives and other interested parties
such as the Society of Registration Officers, The Association
of Chief Archivists in Local Government, The Federation of Family
History Societies and ourselves. The aim of the guidance should
be to ensure a consistent standard and pattern of service across
the UK for users of the registration records. It should cover:
arrangements which provide for storage that
conforms to the relevant British Standard (BS5454)
access to interventive conservation, for at
least the historic records
the need for the digitisation and indexing
of the historic local records as part of a national programme
ensuring that registration authorities make
full use of on the expertise of archive services in providing
public access to historic records
reflecting the nature of existing local joint
arrangements for the provision of archive services
Schemes themselves should specify:
where the historic and modern local registration
records for each registration district will be kept
what arrangements will be made for transferring
records from one location to another if they are in different
places, and when such transfers will take place
what arrangements will be made to meet the
conservation and preservation requirements of the records (modern
and historic)
what arrangements will be made for the digitisation
and indexing of the historic local registers
what the access arrangements will be for the
historic local registers both before and after digitisation
We would, of course, be happy to co-ordinate the
production of this framework and would urge the Committee to the
Government that it be adopted as part of this regulatory reform
process.
29 October 2004
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