The Chief Archivist must give authorisation to public sector organisations before they can dispose of any public or protected records. The options for the disposal of public records specified by the PRA are:

• transfer of control

• alteration

• destruction 

• sale

• discharge 

The PRA applies to public offices and in some instances, to local authorities.

20 Authority to dispose of public records

Public offices such as:

• departments

• offices of Parliament

• crown entities

• state enterprises

may only dispose of public records with the authority of the Chief Archivist. This also covers relevant records of contractors carrying out services on behalf of a public office.

The records created by a local authority are not considered ‘public records’ but do have their own coverage under the PRA. The Chief Archivist can declare any local authority records as protected records. This means a local authority must inform the Chief Archivist of any planned disposal of records declared as protected.

Under the PRA a local authority needs to consider the implications of any disposal decision it considers.

40 Protected records of local authorities

The Chief Archivist approves the disposal of records by issuing a disposal authority. Disposal authorities describe what kind of records are created, how long they should be retained and how they should be disposed of. There are two types of disposal authority.

General disposal authorities

We issue general disposal authorities known as a GDA to help public offices decide what to do with common information and records. A GDA provides the continuing authorisation for disposal of business information and records which are common across organisations. For example:

• property

• communications

• information management

• human resources

• finance

GDA 6 Common corporate service public records (CSV 65 KB)

GDA 7 Facilitative, transitory, and/or short-term value records (CSV 10 KB)

Public office-specific disposal authorities

For the records and information that are not covered by one of the GDAs, a public office will need a separate disposal authority. This authority will capture all the information and records created or received as part of the public office’s core business.

At the start of the disposal authorisation process one of our staff will work with you through the early stages. To get started please contact us .

When approving the disposal of records the Chief Archivist must be satisfied that a systematic process has been followed when making and evaluating disposal decisions.

A disposal authorisation will need two documents to be drafted - an appraisal report and a disposal schedule. Your appraisal process and decisions will need to be documented in an appraisal report. This report will be critical in providing the context and justifications for disposal decisions.

The disposal schedule provides information about:

• descriptions of the function or classes of records,

• minimum retention periods with trigger points,

• disposal actions for example transfer or destroy.

We'll provide the guidance and templates you will need to draft this set of documents.

Once the appraisal report and disposal schedule are drafted, they go through a two-step review process. First, the documents are informally reviewed by one of our staff. They'll work with you to identify areas that require changes prior to a submission for a formal review.

In the formal review, the documents are assigned to a formal reviewer. They'll work with you to provide a final quality check for consistency, logic and justification. This step will often pick up on issues which may need further clarification or consideration.

If issues are discovered, the appraisal report and disposal schedule will be returned for more information or correction.

Once the reviewer is satisfied with the appraisal report and disposal schedule it'll be submitted for approval. As required by the PRA it'll be placed on our website for a period of 30 days for public comment. This process is called Intentions to Dispose .

During this period members of the public can view and comment on the disposal recommendations. At the end of the period, the formal reviewer analyses the public feedback. Where appropriate, the appraisal report and the disposal schedule can be amended to reflect these comments.

When the public notification has finished, and final changes have been made, the final appraisal report and disposal schedule is approved by the Chief Archivist. Then the public office is issued with their disposal authority number.

All current and valid disposal authorities are available by public search on Archway.

When a disposal authority has been issued, the authorised disposal actions should be implemented.

Applying a disposal authority and its actions to an organisation’s information and records is called Sentencing. For sentencing guidance, please refer to the Sentencing guide.