For the Record - July 2025

This issue:

• Revised Records Management Assessment Tool (RMAT)
• Records retention and disposal authorities
• New Policy on accessibility of equipment and technology dependent records
• Records Managers Online Forum 16 June 2025
• eLearning update
• Updated guidance and resources
• Agency Services spotlight: Type 1 boxes
• Agency Services spotlight: Strategic Plan 2025–30

Revised Records Management Assessment Tool (RMAT)

The RMAT has been updated to reflect the recently revised Standard on the physical storage of State records and the Standard on records management. It is available for download as a Word (DOCX 185.58KB) or Excel (XLSX 206.99KB) document.

The 19 questions in the RMAT continue to address the same key requirements. Some questions have undergone minor revision to strengthen their linkages to the requirements (see Q2, Q8, Q12, Q16, Q17, Q18, and Q19).

The changes to the RMAT will not impact our ability to map data from previous Recordkeeping Monitoring Exercises (RMEs) in 2022-2024 to new data that will be collected from 2026 onwards.

The supporting text for each question now makes explicit how it reflects requirements in the State Records Act 1998, State Records Regulation 2024, and the minimum compliance requirements in the mandatory standards. Some maturity levels have also been updated to better reflect those requirements (see Q1, Q2, Q5, Q6, Q8, Q10, Q16, Q17, Q18, and Q19).

The preliminary questions about key characteristics of the public office submitting to the RME are now mandatory, and include a new question asking whether the CEO has approved or endorsed the submission (see i under Assessment Details).

The RMAT is an evidence-based assessment. You must identify the evidence that supports your answers for each question. Identifying evidence enables your organisation to justify its assessment to an internal auditor, the Audit and Risk Committee for your organisation, or an oversight agency (e.g. Audit Office of NSW).

Where RME submissions do not identify the evidence base for maturity levels, we will contact public offices to seek further information. From 2026 State Records NSW will also verify RME submissions on a sampling basis.

Note: Public offices are required to submit their responses to the RMAT using the Service Portal for the 2026 RME in March next year. If you don’t have a logon for the Service Portal, please contact govrec@staterecords.nsw.gov.au.

Records retention and disposal authorities

The Board of State Records NSW recently approved a revised general retention and disposal authority: taking or sending records out of NSW (GA50). The major changes to the authority include:

• Renamed to ‘taking or sending records out of NSW’ from 'transferring records out of NSW for storage with and maintenance by service providers'
• Inclusion of remediation of damaged records as a permitted purpose to take or send records out of NSW.
• Inclusion of specific reference to storage of digital records on servers based outside of Australia as a permitted purpose.
• Inclusion of exhibitions or displays outside of NSW as a permitted purpose for sending records outside of NSW with conditions for records required as State archives that are no longer in use for official purposes to only be displayed outside of NSW with a loan agreement and approval from MHNSW.

• Additional information covering the creation of records out of NSW and covering the storage of records in private residences outside of NSW.

   

New Policy on accessibility of equipment and technology dependent records

Last week, the State Records NSW Board endorsed the Policy on accessibility of equipment and technology dependent records. This policy replaces the Digital Records Preservation Policy and applies to all public offices.

This policy supports compliance with section 14 of the State Records Act 1998, which requires all public offices to maintain accessibility to equipment and technology dependent records. The policy is structured around 3 principles:

• Records should be disposed of when no longer required
• Public offices must maintain accessibility of records for as long as required
• The accessibility of State records over time must be planned and actively managed.

State Records NSW would like to thank everyone who provided feedback on the revised policy.

Records Managers Online Forum 16 June 2025

Thank you to everyone who participated in the Records Managers Online Forum on 16 June 2025.

We had over 300 attendees online to get the latest updates and hear from our guest speakers.

To mark Privacy Awareness Week (PAW) our special guest was Sonia Minutillo, Privacy Commissioner, Information and Privacy Commission NSW, who addressed this year’s theme of “Privacy – it’s everyone’s business” from a recordkeeping perspective.  

Microsoft 365/SharePoint specialist Andrew Warland provided valuable insights on recordkeeping within Microsoft 365. Andrew's also developed guidance to support NSW public offices to manage records in Microsoft 365.

Watch the Records Managers Online Forum June 2025. 

eLearning update

We have been working to add new eLearning modules, update our existing suite of modules, and streamline the process for NSW public offices to access the distributed files for use in local Learning Management Systems.

Two new modules on metadata and recordkeeping have been developed and will shortly go into limited user testing.  There will also be a quiz module for users to test their existing level of knowledge across the whole suite of eLearning modules and identify their training needs.

The current suite of 8 modules has been revised to reflect changes to the regulatory framework and the move to the nsw.gov.au platform. The updated modules will be published at the same time as the new modules.

To make it easier for public offices to access the modules we have a now introduced a new ‘eLearning SCORM request’ form on the State Records NSW Learning Resources page.

To download a SCORM Dispatch file your public office will need:

• A work email address for the person nominated to access SCORM Dispatch dashboard

• The domain name for your learning management system (LMS) domain so it can be whitelisted (The LMS domain address would normally look something like http://your_agency.your_lms_provider.com)

   

Updated guidance and resources

The following pages have recently been updated to support public offices:

• Managing records in Microsoft 365 – New guidance. This guidance provides technical specifications and implementation on how to manage records in Microsoft 365 (M365) for NSW public offices.
• Records management fundamentals presentations – Revised resources. These presentations can be used to introduce senior executives and all staff to records management and obligations under the State Records Act 1998.
• Implementing a retention and disposal authority – Revised guidance. Updated to reflect the new retention and disposal authority introduction.
• Retention and disposal of records FAQ – Revised guidance. This page combines information that was previously held across multiple pages to improve user experience.
• Notify State Records NSW about the loss of State records - Revised guidance. Updated to emphasise the importance of seeking approval from State Records NSW prior to destroying any severely damaged records that have not yet met minimum retention requirements.

State Records NSW will be engaging Andrew Warland to run a small number of sessions for public offices on M365 before the end of the year. Emails will be sent to senior responsible officers and records management contacts in the coming weeks to register for sessions.

Please reach out to govrec@staterecords.nsw.gov.au if you would like to suggest any guidance or resources to be revised or developed.