Codes of best practice

These are also a kind of standard but, in the pyramid model, they codify and describe best practice, functioning as a benchmark against which an organisation can measure its practices and systems. They are not designed for a formal auditing framework. Nonetheless, failure to comply would leave a public office open to criticism in an investigation - whether by a Minister, a Royal Commission, an auditor or a law enforcement body - where recordkeeping practices were an issue.

The principal document to function as a code of best practice in our recordkeeping framework is the Australian Standard and International Standard AS ISO 15489, Records Management, released in 2002. This standard and the Australian Standard AS4390-1996, Records Management, on which it was based have been probably the most significant developments in our discipline in recent years. Certainly the Standard plays a central role in the framework for Government recordkeeping in New South Wales. AS ISO 15489 was endorsed by the Board of State Records as a code of best practice, following a period of consultation, in June 2002.