Recordkeeping for public office employees

Understand the key recordkeeping requirements for public office employees under the State Records Act 1998 and explore essential resources for compliant recordkeeping. 

Your responsibilities

The State Records Act sets the requirements for how records, information and data are managed in NSW public offices. 

Briefly, as a public office employee your responsibilities include:

  • making full and accurate records of all your work-related activities as part of your daily routine
  • securing and protecting records
  • disposing of records legally and appropriately.

The Code of Ethics and Conduct for NSW Government Sector Employees requires that all public sector employees comply with the organisation’s recordkeeping policy, recordkeeping obligations that apply to the role, and ensuring that records are not destroyed without proper authority.

Public offices

Public offices are public sector bodies such as NSW Government agencies, local councils, local health districts, state owned corporations and universities. See Public offices under the State Records Act 1998 for further information.

Examples of records

Records are any information you make or receive in the course of your official duties, in any format, on any media, and from any source including:  

  • digital and physical documents
  • briefing notes, reports and presentations
  • working papers or drafts
  • emails and other correspondence, including messages sent via SMS, mobile apps or collaboration platforms e.g. Teams
  • data in business systems
  • notes of discussions, meetings, phone conversations or site visits
  • information generated by artificial intelligence.
     

Make full and accurate records

You are required to make full and accurate records of all your work-related activities. 

Many business processes and systems automatically create and manage records. In other situations, you need to make records, for example making a note of discussions/decisions made in a meeting.   

When making records, include:

  • a short description
  • date and time
  • decisions or recommendations made
  • advice or instructions given
  • information or documentation considered to support a decision or action
  • people, teams, or organisations involved.

See Guidance on create and capture for further information.

Save your records into your organisation’s official systems – these may include:

  • electronic document and records management systems (e.g. Content Manager or Objective) 
  • online applications and repositories such as line of business systems.

Check with your records and information management team for your organisation’s recordkeeping policies and procedures.

Secure and protect records

You are required to secure and protect records from unauthorised access, alteration or disposal.

You can do this by storing records, information and data:

  • in your organisation’s official business systems and electronic document and records management system
  • with appropriate levels of security and protection.

Talk to your records and information management team for advice on key information security practices. Your organisation’s recordkeeping policies and procedures will also cover information security.

To know more about assessing the sensitivity or security of a record and how to label, handle, store and dispose of it correctly, see the NSW Government information classification, labelling and handling guidelines.

Dispose of records legally and appropriately

You must not destroy any records without authorisation. Check with your organisation’s recordkeeping policy and procedures and the records and information management team that such authorisation exists, before you destroy or delete any records or information. 

Destruction of records illustration

Useful resources

Creating and capturing records for NSW government

This animation is designed to introduce public office employees in NSW to the importance of creating and capturing records for NSW government.

Press the arrow in the image to watch the video.

3:00

Creating and capturing records for NSW government

Read transcript
Video transcript

Creating and capturing records for NSW government

[Music]

If you work in a New South Wales public office, such as a Government agency, local council, local health district, state owned corporation or university, you have responsibilities under the State Records Act.

Public office employees must make full and accurate records of any actions taken and decisions made as part of their work. This includes any information and data that provides the basis for actions and decisions.

Records are essential for ensuring transparency and accountability in government. They are also important business assets because they hold information that is valuable for managing risks and improving services.

Records can take many forms – for example: emails, briefing notes and drafts, messages sent in Teams, WhatsApp or Signal, financial transactions, diary entries, photos and recordings, and information generated by artificial intelligence.

You will need to take different actions to create and capture records depending on the situation. Some records are automatically captured into a business system or a dedicated records management system. Examples of this include finance systems and case management systems.

Some activities automatically create information that can be saved as a record but a deliberate action is still required to save the record to an official recordkeeping system. For example, sending an email creates a record but business emails must then be saved to an official recordkeeping system.

If activities do not automatically create a record, you will need to create one and manually save it. Meetings, phone calls and discussions are key examples and should be documented through a file note or a follow-up email saved to an official recordkeeping system.

When you manually create records, consider what information is relevant for decision making and accountability. For a meeting, that may include: -when the meeting was held, -the purpose of the meeting, -who attended, -what was discussed, and -any action items arising or decisions made. For a more formal meeting, such as a board or council meeting, formal minutes should be created.

Itʼs important to recognise that many working papers and drafts must be kept as records. At all times, describe the record meaningfully so it can be found again.

Your records and information management team will be able to provide guidelines around naming conventions and security, and advice about the most appropriate systems to use.

General guidance, advice and online training is also available on our website. Search ‘State Records NSWʼ.

Recordkeeping responsibilities

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Chief executives

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Records and information managers

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Senior responsible officers

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