Keeper launches new Model Plan

2018 marked five years of The Public Records (Scotland) Act 2011 (the Act) being in operation. The Keeper of the Records of Scotland (the Keeper) considered therefore that it was time to review his Model Records Management Plan (Model Plan) designed to help public authorities comply with the Act.

He convened a Stakeholder Forum of information specialists from various sectors to help him conduct a review and he encouraged wider remote participation by making the proceedings of the Forum available on the National Records of Scotland website.

The Forum considered all elements and aspects of the Model Plan to address identified textual issues and provide additional best practice guidance on what is expected under each of the elements. There were, however, two issues that required particular focus:

• To what extent can an agreed records management plan contribute to evidence of compliance under the new Data Protection Act 2018?
• How can the Model Plan articulate and reinforce the existing obligations on a public authority to ensure appropriate records management provisions of third-party 'contractors' carrying out functions on behalf of an authority under s.3(2) of the Act?

The Forum met three times between July and October 2018 to consider these issues and its deliberations led to a draft revised Model Plan. This was subject to a formal Scottish Government public consultation between December 2018 and March 2019. The Keeper addressed all of the comments gained under the consultation and was delighted to be able to incorporate most of these into the final version. The new Model Plan, formally launched at the 2019 Public Records Scotland Act Conference, Building on the Success of the Public Records (Scotland) Act, promotes our data protection obligations more obviously throughout and includes a new element addressing the issue of public records created by third parties under contract to a named public authority.

More importantly, this revised, co-produced Model Plan, better reflects the needs and wishes of stakeholders and will help authorities develop and implement more robust records management arrangements under the Act. The Keeper thanks colleagues for their collaborative approach and positive engagement throughout the review and encourages all of us promote and make use of this new Model Plan to the benefit of Scotland’s public records.