Lord Irvine

Campaigners have given a broad welcome to Lord Irvine's call for Whitehall departments to establish clear rules on preserving electronic records.

The Lord Chancellor, who made the call in a speech on records management in government on Thursday, has responsibility for the Public Record Office and the government's long term planning on the issue.

He said one of his ministers, Yvette Cooper, would raise the subject with other departments as the government works towards its 2004 target date for Whitehall's ministries to be able to electronically store and retrieve newly created records.

The emphasis on developing policies and procedures covering the management of electronic records from creation to archiving was welcomed by Neil Beagrie of the Digital Preservation Coalition (DPC).

The DPC - which counts the British Library, the national libraries of Scotland and Wales, the Open University and the Consortium of University Research Libraries among its members - is working to secure the preservation of digital resources in the UK, and Beagrie said the speech was "extremely welcome" in its approach to many of the key issues.

It chimed with the work of the DPC, he added, which is seeking to raise awareness of electronic records management as the Freedom of Information Act is progressively implemented.

Lord Irvine had told the conference that government departments faced a major challenge in records management over the next three years.

"We need to be sure that all this information is kept up-to-date, and for as long as it is needed; and that the rights of privacy, confidentiality and security are all met," he said.

And he warned that Whitehall would need excellent procedures on records management or face "difficulty" meeting the new freedom of information requirements.

The Lord Chancellor said electronic records would also have a key role to play in helping the government put more of its services online.

"Electronic records management underpins the delivery of these electronic government services," he said.

Lord Irvine said the civil service needed to understand how it would use electronic records and establish policies to ensure that records needed in the future - for businessor historical reasons - are properly managed from their first creation.

"In doing so, departments will need to take into account the requirements of privacy and openness, and the data sharing needs of other parts of government.

"This exchange has, of course, to be carefully managed to prevent any possible misuse. As a multi-ethnic and multi-faith society, we need to be sure that the nation's memory reflects all sections of the community, and government's dealings with them," he said.

And he called for working cultures and practices to change so that records management would be seen as the "responsibility of everyone in an organisation" rather than being the "province of a few specialist staff in a registry".

Beagrie said the Lord Chancellor's speech had "hit all the right issues".

"I felt it was a very strong speech. I would give it a very warm welcome," he told ePolitix.com.

"Good data management is important not just for the delivery of services, but ultimately for defining the sources of material that will present the record of the nation's government to future generations."

He said the issue didn't always get the coverage it deserved, being seen as a "backroom issue" even though it could play an important role in areas such as corporate memory.

"I think they are getting things moving in the right direction. I think there perhaps need to be greater emphasis on thinking about sustainability of things when we are digitising material," Beagrie added.

Beagrie gave his backing to Lord Irvine's call for records to be properly managed from their creation, and for management to be seen as a responsibility for all staff.

"You have to have very early intervention on the records and to be thinking about it from the beginning," he said. "You've got to make sure they are properly managed from their first creation."

Change would depend on staff implementing the plans on a day to day basis, rather than just handing the information over to archivists.

"There's a lot of work to do, still, even if its moving in the right direction."

And he said that Whitehall departments needed to make sure they took as much care with electronic records management as they traditionally have with their paper-based records.

"The other thing which changes is perhaps that the records managers or archivists themselves have to be much more pro-active in terms of outreach to government departments, and helping to change the culture.

"That's something which is quite a big change for the archives and records management profession. Its very good to see that beginning to happen."

Beagrie also noted that the issue was relevant to local government as well as the traditional Whitehall fiefdoms.

"We probably need to do far more with local government as well as central government departments. That's outside the brief of the Lord Chancellor but I notice that is a gap if you are talking about government generally in the UK."

Beagrie told this website that there were discussions about setting up regional archive councils to promote collaborative structures for electronic records.

Such a move could help because "many of the archives are very small and don't have the specialised facilities to handle electronic materials in the long term".

Despite the call for more to be done, Beagrie said the Lord Chancellor was moving in the right direction.

"He's hitting all the right notes in my view...I think it will be very welcome in terms of the national archives."