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HOUSE of LORDS RECORD OFFICE Archives The Parliamentary The Parliamentary Annual Review 2001 – 2002 Archives The Parliamentary The Parliamentary ANNUAL REVIEW 1999–2000 The House of Lords Record Office (The Parliamentary Archives) holds the records of both Houses of Parliament which date from 1497. You can find more information about us on our pages at the Parliamentary website www.parliament.uk To make an enquiry or to arrange to use our searchroom contact us: By e-mail: [email protected] By writing: House of Lords Record Office London SW1A OPW By telephone: 020 7219 3074 By fax: 020 7219 2570 Cover illustration: Detail of the new air conditioning ducts in the Victoria Tower repository PHOTOGRAPH: HOUSE OF LORDS RECORD OFFICE Published by TSO (The Stationery Office) and available from: Online www.tso.co.uk/bookshop Mail,Telephone, Fax & E-mail TSO PO Box 29, Norwich, NR3 1GN Telephone orders/General enquiries: 0870 600 5522 Fax orders: 0870 600 5533 E-mail: [email protected] Textphone 0870 240 3701 TSO Shops 123 Kingsway, London, WC2B 6PQ 020 7242 6393 Fax 020 7242 6394 68-69 Bull Street, Birmingham B4 6AD 0121 236 9696 Fax 0121 236 9699 9-21 Princess Street, Manchester M60 8AS 0161 834 7201 Fax 0161 833 0634 16 Arthur Street, Belfast BT1 4GD 028 9023 8451 Fax 028 9023 5401 18-19 High Street, Cardiff CF10 1PT 029 2039 5548 Fax 029 2038 4347 71 Lothian Road, Edinburgh EH3 9AZ 0870 606 5566 Fax 0870 606 5588 TSO Accredited Agents (see Yellow Pages) and through good booksellers £5 ISBN 0-10-400108-9 Published by The Stationery Office Limited Parliamentary Copyright House of Lords 2002 House of Lords Record Office 2002 Printed in the UK by the Stationery Office Limited 12/2002 787897 19585 9 780104 001080 HOUSE of LORDS RECORD OFFICE Archives Annual The Parliamentary Review 2001 – 2002 London: The Stationery Office 2 ANNUAL REVIEW 2001–2002 Review of the year Archives The Parliamentary The Parliamentary This review of the work of the House of Lords Record Office (The Parliamentary Archives) covers the year that ended on 31st March 2002. The activities of the Parliamentary Archives support the key objectives of the House of Lords’ administration and the permanent core tasks of the House of Commons’ administration, which correspond to: • providing the public with information with an appointment to the new post of and access Freedom of Information Officer.The post holder has oversight of House of Lords’ • maintaining the heritage of buildings, arrangements for Freedom of Information objects and documents and Data Protection and also for the records The core work continues to be collection management service provided to both management and serving the needs of our Houses. different user communities.Two main Further steady progress has been made in threads run through the year’s activities implementing the Parliamentary records reported here. Firstly, key initiatives that management strategy, which will assist were scoped, planned and for which funding compliance with the Lord Chancellor’s was secured in the last few years are Code of Practice on the management of delivering discernible benefits, which will records under Section 46 of the Freedom of enhance our services to all users. Secondly, Information Act. Key activities were the the extent to which working together inside agreement of the corporate file classification and outside the Palace of Westminster has scheme and commencement of its rollout been an important factor in delivering our to offices and departments of both Houses; objectives. participation in a project board assessing the electronic records management Records Management,Freedom of requirements of a document management Information and Data Protection system; and discussions with the Commons’ Management of these complementary administration about its records information management functions was management requirements. brought together in the House of Lords ANNUAL REVIEW 2001–2002 3 Preservation and conservation Staff A building project, which will bring major The achievements of the past year owe improvements to the environmental and much to the dedication and enthusiasm of physical protection of the archives in the our staff whether they are new staff bringing Victoria Tower repository, got underway in the benefit of fresh professional insight July for completion in 2004-05. Measures or long-serving staff with willingness to are in place to limit the inevitable disruption question, to innovate and to embrace to public services in the course of the change. upgrade. With specialist assistance from the British Priorities for 2002-03 Library a collection condition survey of the • Further rollout of the file classification archives was launched so that conservation scheme for Parliamentary records and and preservation needs are understood and development of a disposal authority for addressed strategically. use with the scheme. • Continued preparations for Access implementing Freedom of Information A four-year programme for the retrospective and Data Protection legislation in the conversion of paper finding aids and legacy House of Lords. databases for inclusion in the CALM • Major improvement works will continue catalogue system was launched at the in the Victoria Tower repository. beginning of year and by its end the number of records in the catalogue was over 90,000. • Conversion to the online catalogue of the numerous finding aids of the records for Particularly noteworthy has been the House of Lords and House of Commons mounting on the National Archive Network will begin. under the auspices of Access to Archives at the PRO of the catalogue entries of the original acts of Parliament from 1497 to 1999, the Stephen Ellison Bonar Law and the Lloyd George Papers. Clerk of the Records 4ANNUAL REVIEW 2001–2002 Our role is to safeguard and to provide access to the memory of Parliament Archives Our aims are to achieve this by: The Parliamentary The Parliamentary • Providing a records management and • Ensuring compliance of the House an archive service for each House of of Lords’ administration with Freedom Parliament and making the archives of Information and Data Protection accessible to the public legislation. Our key objectives provide a strategic framework for the core functions of the Parliamentary Archives: Records Management Preservation • To develop and implement policies for a • To provide sufficient suitable repository best practice and corporate approach to storage to preserve the archives in the management of the current records accordance with recognised professional of each House of Parliament standards. • To develop and implement policies for • To assist preservation of the archives by compliance of the House of Lords’ their conservation and the provision of administration with the Freedom of surrogate copies. Information Act and the Data Protection Act, and to provide advice to staff about Access their particular application. • To provide an up-to-date catalogue of the archives. Acquisition • To provide a public service for the • To ensure that departmental records of inspection and copying of records, and each House of Parliament worthy of the answering of enquiries. permanent preservation are selected and archived • To promote awareness of the archives and history of Parliament. • To acquire other records that contribute significantly to the understanding of the history and workings of Parliament ANNUAL REVIEW 2001–2002 5 Records Management Archives The records management team has continued to make steady The Parliamentary The Parliamentary progress in implementing the agreed strategy for Parliamentary records management.The importance of the strategy, which is recognised by the administrations of both Houses, is seen as: • bringing business benefits in terms of function and activity taken from the better access to information by staff to classification scheme.This follows the aid decision-making and increase approach recommended in the new departmental effectiveness International Standard on Records Management, ISO 15489. Documentation • part of each House’s preparation for supporting the scheme, including a Freedom of Information and Data thesaurus, was finalised during the summer. Protection Pilots were carried out to establish a system • creating the right culture in which to for implementation, which then commenced manage electronic records in October. Weekly training courses are run for staff of both Houses and specific The main activities have been: assistance is given to offices converting to the scheme. Benefits seen already include: Classification scheme for parliamentary records • better control of information within offices, in particular the introduction At the beginning of the year of file lists (a requirement for Freedom the classification scheme of Information) was approved by all departments after several • improved awareness of the importance months’ consultation of record-keeping and negotiation. • tidy work areas in offices, and therefore The scheme is based more efficient working on Keyword AAA, a functional thesaurus and Guidance to staff classification The Record Officers Groups in each House scheme continue to provide a useful forum for the developed by dissemination of information and receipt the Government of of feedback.The first edition of the New South Wales. Parliamentary Records Management It is an essential Handbook, containing advice to staff about precursor for a how to manage the records that they create Parliamentary and use, was distributed in hard copy and
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