Managing emails
Under the State Records Act 1998, emails sent or received during official business, including those from private accounts, are classified as State records. This applies to all public officials, including ministers, and ensures accountability for records regardless of format.
The Act broadly defines a record to include any form of information storage, ensuring coverage of evolving technologies.
Email messages must be captured and kept
NSW public offices, including Ministers, need policies and procedures to manage email records appropriately. These should outline:
- which email messages must be captured as records
- who is responsible for capturing them and when
- how to capture email records, such as through a business system or a recordkeeping system like EDRMS.
In some cases, email records are automatically captured as part of a work process.
Understand your responsibilities for managing email
If the answer to any of the following questions is 'yes', the email message is a business record and must be managed appropriately:
Question | Yes or no |
Does it approve or authorise actions? | |
Is it a formal communication between staff relating to work? | |
Does it signify a policy change or development? | |
Does it commit the organisation to an arrangement or to a business deal? | |
Does it contain advice, provide guidance or constitute formal communications with people inside or outside the organisation? | |
Am I required to act upon it? | |
Is it external correspondence I have received relating to work? | |
Is it something that I have sent for a business purpose? | |
Is it something I have used at work to make a decision? | |
If I left this job tomorrow, would my successor need the information it contains to continue with this matter? | |
Is the matter to which the message relates one which may be reviewed or audited later? |
Retention period
Email messages do not have a fixed retention period.
Their retention depends on the business activities and transactions they document rather than their format.
Emails tied to business processes must be managed like any other record, with their retention determined by the nature of the activity.
However, non-business emails, such as personal messages, spam, or event reminders, typically do not need to be retained.