For the Record - January 2026

ISSN 1321-6260 January 2026- No 174

This issue:

• Mandatory Recordkeeping Monitoring Exercise
• Service Portal
• New animation on recordkeeping responsibilities
• Satisfaction survey results
• Records retention and disposal authorities
• Recording of the October 2025 Records Managers Forum

Mandatory Recordkeeping Monitoring Exercise 

The 2026 Recordkeeping Monitoring Exercise will be held 2 – 27 March 2026.

For most public offices, participation in the exercise is a mandatory requirement under Part 2 of the State Records Act 1998.

Public offices can meet their obligations by conducting an assessment using the Records Management Assessment Tool (RMAT) and submitting it using the online Service Portal. State Records NSW will also contact all Senior Responsible Officer (SROs) for records management on 2 March 2026 with further details about the commencement of the Recordkeeping Monitoring Exercise and use of the Service Portal. 

We encourage you to start preparing now for the upcoming Recordkeeping Monitoring Exercise by downloading a copy of the RMAT and making an assessment of your organisation’s records management.

It is important that for each question you include information on the evidence used to support the selection of a maturity level.

State Records NSW is strengthening assurance for the Recordkeeping Monitoring Exercise by introducing a verification process on a sampling basis in 2026. The purpose of the verification process is to validate the accuracy of the information provided to State Records NSW. We will be in contact with public offices selected for the verification process in early April 2026.

Each public office will be provided with an individual report detailing its results and sector benchmarking information.

State Records NSW will report publicly on the results of the Recordkeeping Monitoring exercise in July 2026. 

Remember, your organisation’s RMAT assessment and submission in the Recordkeeping Monitoring Exercise provides extremely useful information for your organisation on its recordkeeping maturity and conformity with the State Records Act. The information you provide to State Records NSW helps us to build an understanding of the state of recordkeeping in NSW public offices and to identify areas of recordkeeping concern, which will inform our planning and development of resources for public offices.

We appreciate your cooperation and participation in the Recordkeeping Monitoring Exercise.

If you have any questions about the Recordkeeping Monitoring Exercise, please contact us at govrec@staterecords.nsw.gov.au

Service Portal

Do you have a login for the Service Portal?

You will need to have a login for the Service Portal to lodge your organisation’s submission to the Recordkeeping Monitoring Exercise in March 2026.

If you don’t have a login, contact us at govrec@staterecords.nsw.gov.au to organise one.

New animation on recordkeeping responsibilities

We have a new short animation on recordkeeping responsibilities for NSW public sector employees.

The animation is designed to be used in induction processes and to raise awareness amongst staff of their recordkeeping responsibilities.

The new animation is available on our Recordkeeping education and training webpage.

Satisfaction survey results

During October 2025 we conducted a survey on the services offered to public offices by State Records NSW and Museums of History NSW.

The survey results indicate that public offices:

• are satisfied/very satisfied with the quality of advice or service provided by State Records NSW and Museums of History NSW
• are likely to recommend the organisations to their contacts for recordkeeping advice and support or for advice on access directions and transferring State archives, and
• are likely to use the advice and support services of State Records and Museums of History NSW again.

There was also a high level of satisfaction with the State Records NSW and Museum of History NSW (agency-facing services) webpages.

We also received a strong indication of preferences for future guidance and support and will incorporate these in our planning.

Thank you to all the public offices who responded to the survey.

Records retention and disposal authorities

The Board of the State Records Authority NSW recently approved:

• additional entries to the disposal authority for Forensic medicine and forensic science
• a revised disposal authority for the Health Professional Councils Authority
• reissuing the General retention and disposal authority: Original or source records that have been migrated (GA48). No changes have been made to the approval or conditions to destroy source records after a migration.
• revoking an aged disposal authority for the Sydney Harbour Foreshore Authority.

The new and revised disposal authorities are available on our website.

Recording of the October 2025 Records Managers Forum 

Our Records Managers Forum in October 2025 included presentations by HealthShare NSW and NSW Treasury on the development of their Information Asset Registers. These Registers assist public offices to manage privacy, cyber security, data governance, data management, and records management processes. Thank you to our colleagues at HealthShare NSW and NSW Treasury for sharing their IAR journeys and insights.

The Forum also included a presentation from Agency Services at Museums of History NSW on the process for transferring digital State archives.

The recording of the Forum and presentation slides are available on our Records Managers Online Forum October 2025 webpage.