News: Final meeting of the Scottish Records Advisory Council

After 70 years of providing advice to Scottish Ministers on a range of archival issues, the Scottish Records Advisory Council (SRAC) held its final meeting on Wednesday 27 February 2008. The Council was among the 52 public bodies which the Scottish Government announced in January would be abolished or merged to simplify government. Though the terms of the final two members end this September, legislation to remove the Council from the statute books will not be passed until next year.

The Council was established by the Public Records (Scotland) Act, 1937 to advise on questions relating to the custody, preservation and cataloguing of, as well as access to, public records. Over the years its remit was extended to encompass private archives, NHS Trusts and Higher Education Institutions and most recently, the application of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act to information in records held by the Keeper of the Records of Scotland.

Issues debated by the Council have included archival legislation, the preservation and destruction of records, local government reorganisation and local record keeping, postgraduate archival training courses, the transfer of records to and from the National Archives of Scotland (NAS), fees and charges in the NAS, record publishing and cataloguing records generated by NHS Trusts and of former nationalised industries, preservation of electronic records and their management and safeguards for court records in event of emergencies.


Pictured above from left to right:
Bruno Longmore and Dr Hugh Hagan, Government Records Branch and Dr Peter Anderson, Deputy Keeper, National Archives of Scotland; Professor Roger Davidson; Lesley Richmond, Glasgow University Archives; Kevin Wilbraham, Edinburgh City Archives; Professor Lynn Abrams, Glasgow University; George Mackenzie, Keeper of the Records of Scotland; Sheriff David Smith; Duncan Macniven, Registrar General; Professor Hector MacQueen, Chair; Dr Alison Rosie, Secretary.