The Chief Archivist's report to the Minister of Internal Affairs on the state of government recordkeeping for the year to 30 June 2016 has now been tabled in Parliament.

The report is prepared under the Public Records Act 2005 and the Chief Archivist says its production was delayed by Kaikōura earthquake disruption.

The previous report of the Chief Archivist expressed concerns about the poor recordkeeping within many public offices. The 2015/16 report outlines steps to address these concerns and optimise Archives’ regulatory role such as the development of a new mandatory information and records management standard, a regulatory statement and the revision of core guidance material.

The report describes the development of the capability to transfer born-digital records from public offices to Archives New Zealand. While progress has been made in trials with public offices, it says it is clear that there is more work to be done by both Archives New Zealand and the public offices that are transferring records. 

Archives New Zealand’s regulatory interventions are also reported on. Most notably, charges were laid for the first time under the Public Records Act in the context of a successful attempt to recover records that were being improperly offered for sale.