I’m sure most of you (in the UK at least) will be aware of the review commissioned by the Govt into the 30 year rule. Likewise I suspect many will have read Lord Dacre’s findings and recommendations. I say ‘suspect’ as there doesn’t seem to have been much discussion of them so far on the usual RM and archive lists, but maybe I’ve just missed it in the information (and literal!) blizzard.

I’m sure all will come to their own conclusions about the pros and cons of moving towards a 15 year rule and don’t propose to comment on this here. What I did find particularly illuminating was paragraph 8.23

“We recommend that electronic record capture should be an integral part of the
IT infrastructure of government, and not a ‘bolt-on’ activity. Work on creating an IT
strategy to ensure that records are automatically kept needs to be accelerated.”

The message seems pretty clear to me. The capture, management and maintenance of electronic records should now be considered an IT function, integrated within the mainstream of IT service delivery. Reference to records management as a ‘bolt-on activity’ confirms my fears that we have effectively allowed ourselves to be increasingly marginalized over recent years whilst the game moves on and upwards without us.

So, Records Managers, its time to open the office door, walk down the corridor to the Head of IT and pass the baton marked ‘Records Management’ over to him or her to deal with and for us to return to our warehouses full of paper and hanging files…