Requesting an amendment to a records disposal schedule

Officers within agencies applying published records disposal schedules should continually review and determine if the class descriptions, status and disposal actions remain current and are appropriate.

Published retention and disposal schedules are not static documents and may require amendment for a number of reasons, which could include:

  • the business function or processes have changed and the schedule no longer adequately covers all records captured by the function
  • spelling and/or typing mistakes have been identified
  • terminology has been superseded
  • existing cross references may be redundant or a new cross reference needs to be added
  • classes are no longer relevant to the schedule and need to be removed
  • a class or classes need to be added to the schedule
  • functions covered by the schedule have been affected by machinery of government changes
  • the schedule is long standing and is no longer relevant in its current form
  • legislative changes have been implemented and have had an impact on the published schedule.

Schedule reviews are divided into three categories:

  • Category A reviews cover minor amendments which do not alter a disposal action or the scope of records covered by a disposal class.
  • Category B reviews cover changes which do alter disposal actions and/or the scope of records covered by class descriptions, but where the whole schedule does not require a review.
  • Category C reviews cover where the entire schedule is reviewed and published under a new schedule number, with the reviewed schedule being superseded. The process for this category of review is the same as for the development of a new schedule.

Both Category A and B reviews allow a schedule to be updated without the schedule needing to be superseded and republished with a new schedule number. Amendments are noted in a table at the front of the amended disposal schedule. A version number and new date are added to the cover page, with the same schedule number being retained.

Category B amendments require approval of the agency Chief Executive.

The following information will assist agencies in identifying what may be discerned as a minor change:

  • spelling  or typing mistakes have been identified
  • adding a new cross reference
  • deleting a cross reference
  • grammar  or style inaccuracy.

Requirement: An email from the senior manager of the information section to the Records Service for notification to the Records Retention and Disposal Working Group (RRDWG), including a completed Amending an existing records disposal schedule form DOCX (31.1 KB), will be sufficient evidence for this action to proceed.

The following information will assist agencies in identifying what may be discerned as a minor change that will require evidence (i.e. Record Class Description) and CE approval.

  • adding a new disposal class
  • adding a new activity
  • changing a keyword scope note
  • changing the description of an existing disposal class
  • changing a disposal status or trigger
  • removing a class/es

Requirement: An email to the Records Service in the first instance who will then advise the RRDWG of the amendment request and will liaise with agency to progress request.

The agency will be required to supply relevant forms and associated authorisation i.e. CE certification. Record Class Description statements will be required for any new disposal classes.

Category B changes will be noted in a table of amendments which will be inserted in the preamble of the revised schedule.

Alphabetical order and disposal action precedence will be ignored when amending schedules. New classes will be added at the end of an amended schedule in order to avoid the re-numbering of existing classes.

Schedule of amendments

Amendments to the [Function name] Functional Records Disposal Schedule

Dated: January 2014

Table of amendments

PageElement Type of edit Description of amendment
4 Class 1.1.4 Category B Addition of class 1.1.4.
6 Class 1.3.4 Category B Change to description to expand coverage of disposal class.

The following information will assist agencies in identifying when a major review is required.

  • machinery of government changes that have a substantial influence on published functional records disposal schedules
  • internal restructures that have a substantial influence on published functional records disposal schedules
  • significant changes to legislation that have a substantial and direct effect on published functional records disposal schedules
  • functions being split
  • plans are made to commercialise or privatise the function
  • the published schedule is long standing and has not had a review for several years.

Requirement:  An email to the Records Service in the first instance who will advise the RRDWG of the review request for noting on the group’s work plan. Agency will be required to supply relevant forms and associated authorisations as prescribed in the guideline.

For further information on major changes please refer to: Guideline for the development of a functional records disposal schedule - reviewing a functional records disposal schedule.

The NT Records Service and the NT Archives Service acknowledge that material produced by Archives New Zealand and State Records of South Australia was used in the development of this procedure.

For information and advice, please contact:

NT Records Service
Department of Corporate and Digital Development
GPO Box 2391
Darwin NT 0801

Email: NTG.RecordsPolicy@nt.gov.au
Phone: 08 8924 3847
Fax: 08 8924 3880

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