Records legislation

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A number of pieces of legislation outline how public bodies should manage and publish their records.

This affects:

National Records of Scotland
other government bodies
local government

In legislation there are references to 'the Keeper of the Records of Scotland'. This is a title held by our Chief Executive.

Primary Legislation for Public Records

There are 4 main acts which impact how NRS and other government bodies manage records.

The Public Records (Scotland) Act aims to:

raise the profile of records management across the public sector
promote improvements in record keeping

It tasks named public authorities with preparing, submitting and implementing a Records Management Plan.

You can read more about the Public Records (Scotland) Act.

This act was largely concerned with providing for the transfer of records of central and local Scottish courts to the Keeper.

It also:

makes it lawful for government departments, agencies, non-departmental public bodies, statutory bodies corporate, and local authorities to transfer their records to the Keeper
prescribes procedures for records disposal
provides for the temporary retransmission of records when required by their creators
outlines the powers and duties of the Keeper concerning the records in their care, and allows them to take necessary steps to carry out these duties, including employing staff and destroying records which are not judged to be of long term value
makes it lawful for the Keeper to acquire records from private owners through an amendment introduced in the National Heritage (Scotland) Act 1985

This Act created a new 'Keeper of the Records of Scotland’ and took away from the Keeper the responsibility for the General Register of Sasines, which was passed to the newly-created post of ‘Keeper of the Registers of Scotland’.

This Act excludes Scotland from its provisions, but it has an effect on Scottish public records in two respects:

With the agreement of both the UK and Scottish Keepers, UK public bodies operating wholly or mainly in Scotland may transfer their records to the National Records of Scotland rather than to the National Archives (TNA) which are based in London. This is made possible by an interaction between section 3(8) of the 1958 Act and section 5(1) of the Public Records (Scotland) Act 1937.

In 1962, the Scottish Office adopted the arrangements for access to government records set out in the 1958 Act and also adopted similar arrangements for the selection, transfer and preservation of government records.

You can find more information about the 1958 Act in the policy and legislation section of The National Archives (TNA) Website.

Local Government Records Legislation

There are 3 main acts which impact how local authorities manage their records.

The Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 introduced a two-tier system of local government comprising:

9 regional authorities (divided into 53 district councils)
3 unitary island councils

This arrangement came into effect in 1974 and survived until 1995.

The Act includes several sections with a bearing on the recording and publication of information and on rights of access to records.

However the section which governed the transfer of records between the old and new authorities and required the new authorities to make 'proper arrangements' for their records, was repealed by the Environment Act 1995.

You can view a copy the act on the NRS web archive.

As the title suggests, this Act is largely concerned with setting out the rights of access to information held by local authorities.

You can view a copy of the act on the NRS web archive.

This Act replaced the two-tier system of Scottish local government with 29 unitary authorities, coming into effect in 1995. It also provided for the transfer of property, including records, between the old and new authorities and obliges local authorities to make 'proper arrangements' for their records after consulting the Keeper of the Records of Scotland.

You can view a copy of the act on the NRS web archive.

Public Records (Scotland) Act 2011

Public Records (Scotland) Act 1937

Public Registers and Records (Scotland) Act 1948

Public Records Act 1958

Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973

Local Government (Access to Information) Act 1985

Local Government etc (Scotland) Act 1994