2021/22 Chief Archivist's report tabled with Parliament
The Chief Archivist’s Annual Report on the State of Government Recordkeeping 2021/22 was tabled in the House of Representatives yesterday.
The State of Government Recordkeeping 2021/22 report shows that Te Rua Mahara o te Kāwanatanga Archives New Zealand is continuing to promote the power of robust recordkeeping.
Over the past year work has been done to progress Māori metadata tagging, and an All-of-Government ontology, Data Lakes Proof of Concept, a comprehensive appraisal, disposal, and implementation redesign project, and assistance for organisations grappling with Microsoft 365 information management practices.
2021/22 marked the second year of our refreshed audit programme with audits of 37 public offices conducted under section 33 of the PRA. There is a huge variance in the IM maturity levels of New Zealand’s public offices with most organisations still operating at the ‘Beginning’ or ‘Progressing’ levels and for many, significant improvements are required to achieve a higher rating for their management of information and records.
The 21/22 year saw significant reforms in health, water and education sectors. From Archives New Zealand’s perspective, organisational change requires careful consideration of IM, the control of transferred records and the management of disposal authorisations across the impacted public offices.
Archives New Zealand has continued its critical role in enabling access to a vast number of records for the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Historical Abuse in State Care and in the Care of Faith-based Institution, producing well over a million archival images. Supporting information creation and management is not only a compliance requirement, but a critical part of the care approach — the stories collected in the inquiry are not simply evidential for redress but are core to the survivors’ identity, connections with their families, and connecting with where they came from.
In accordance with the Public Records Act 2005, Archives New Zealand has a critical regulatory role to ensure that public sector organisations create and maintain full, accurate and accessible records now and in the future.