What is sentencing?

Sentencing is the process of deciding what to do with your organisation’s records based on how long they need to be kept. This is usually done according to rules set by State Records NSW. Sentencing involves identifying and sorting records and then following the rules for how long to keep them and what to do next. The actions include:

• destroying records that are no longer needed
• transferring records to Museums of History NSW or another NSW public office.

Before sentencing, organisations conduct a process called appraisal. This is when decisions are made about what records should be created and how long they should be kept. Appraisal also helps design systems to manage and store records, especially for digital or digitised records. Sentencing and disposal are the steps that happen after appraisal decisions are made.

Benefits of sentencing and routine records disposal

Sentencing your public office's records has a number of benefits. These include:

• the disposal of digital data that would otherwise require migration and further management, saving time and expense. 
• saving money by not storing paper records in offsite and onsite locations for longer than necessary
• easier retrieval of information as records of continuing value have been identified and the rest are legally disposed of.

By sentencing your organisation's records with the approved retention and disposal authorities, and documenting the process, your public office can demonstrate that it has disposed of records legally under the State Records Act 1998.