News

First Minister announces abolition of the SRAC

On January 30, 2008, First Minister Alex Salmond made a statement in Parliament about the Scottish Government's plans to simplify public services. It laid out its intention to reduce the 199 national public service organisations by at least 25 per cent with the aim of achieving less duplication and bureaucracy.

Among public bodies which are to be abolished is the Scottish Records Advisory Council.

‘We will abolish the Scottish Records Advisory Council, as we believe the advice it provides can better be obtained from other sources. The decision is in line with the Government's approach to reducing the number of Advisory Bodies established to advise Scottish Ministers. Advice on public records and related matters can be more efficiently provided by informal consultation, co-ordinated by the National Archives of Scotland.’

Mr Salmond’s statement and associated papers giving details of all the NDPBs affected can be found on the Scottish Government’s website.

West Search Room refurbishment

One of the concerns raised by the Council in recent years has been the uncomfortable and cramped seating in the National Archives of Scotland's Search Room in West Register House, Charlotte Square, Edinburgh.

The Council notes with pleasure that a major refurbishment of the search room has just been completed. The original 1970s fixed desk and chair units have been replaced by more flexible benches and chairs. The lighting and layout have also been improved.

More information on the changes can be found in the news section of The National Archives of Scotland website.

SRAC website

You may have noticed that the Scottish Records Advisory Council has recently changed its domain name to www.scottishrecordsadvisorycouncil.info.

We hope that this change will make it easier for people to access information about us. Access to the site is still available on the home page of the National Archives of Scotland website www.nas.gov.uk.

Also new on the website is a copy of our Chairman, Professor Hector MacQueen's lecture on the reform of archival legislation (PDF 108KB), given at a conference in Dublin in October 2004 organised by the Society of Archivists, Ireland and the National Archive Advisory Council (Ireland). The paper argues that an independent advisory council is an important guarantee of the wider public interest in archives.

The minutes of the most recent meeting of the Council in October 2005 are now available in the Minutes of Meetings section.

Freedom of Information

The Scottish Records Advisory Council is an authority under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 which comes into force on 1 January 2005. Under the terms of section 23 of the Act, the SRAC has issued a publication scheme with the approval of the Information Commissioner, valid until 30 November 2008.

This scheme sets out those classes of material which the SRAC will make available to the public as a matter of course, and how they will be made available.

For further details click here.