Legal Compliance
Legal Compliance is the main driver. The most important statutory areas are;
Freedom of Information Acts (2000 and 2002)
Data Protection (1998)
Health and Safety
Employment Law
Human Rights (2000)
Animal Welfare Acts And Regulation
Contractual Relationships
Environmental Information regulations
The JISC Study of the Records Lifecycle quotes 13 separate Acts of the UK Parliament, and over 30 Statutory Instruments of the UK Parliament in compiling its list of recommended retention periods for records of UK FE and HE institutions. To this must be added all statutes which do not give specific guidance on records retention but operate from a series of general principles.
The most important of these are:
The Freedom of Information Act 2000 and the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002
These two acts, which are in most respects similar give every member of the public the right of access to information held by every public authority in the UK, subject to a number of specific and limited exceptions. They are the direct result of the government commitment to transparency and open government. The Acts have two requirements:
That all public authorities maintain a publication scheme which is approved by the Information Commissioner, and details the information which the authorities will publish as a matter of course.
After 1 January 2005 anyone may request information from a Public Authority, has the right to know whether or not the information is held by the authority and normally will have the right to have access to it.
A full text may be found at Freedom of Information Act 2000
A briefing note by JISC can be found at Freedom of Information Act 2000 : implementation & practice
A full text of the Scottish Act may be found at Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002
A briefing note by JISC can be found at Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 : implementation and practice
Data Protection Act 1998
The Data Protection Act 1998 is primarily concerned with protecting the rights of individuals to their personal data. It also defines eight principles with which those controlling or processing data must comply Personal Data must be:
Processed lawfully and fairly
Obtained only for a specified purpose or purposes
Adequate, relevant, and not excessive for the specified purpose
Accurate and up to date
Only kept as long as is necessary
Processed with due consideration for the data subject's rights
Kept securely
Not transferred outside the European economic area
One reason why records management is vital to Data Protection is that since 1984 when the first act was passed the definition of what is to be included as personal data has been steadily enlarged. At first it applied only to data in computerised systems. The 1998 Act extended this to all personal data in 'structured' files. On 1 January 2005 this was extended to unstructured personal data as well.
Regulatory Compliance
Regulatory compliance is almost as important as legislative compliance. This is an important element in both good management and institutional efficiency. Elements include:
Funding
Teaching Quality Assessment
Research Quality
Financial Audit
Risk Management
Disaster Planning and Business Recovery
