The State Records Office is pleased to announce the publication of the revised General Retention and Disposal Authority for State Government Information (GRDASG) and the revised General Retention and Disposal Authority for Local Government Information (GRDALG), approved by the State Records Commission.
The GRDASG (DA 2023-004) supersedes the General Disposal Authority for State Government Information (DA 2013-017/1) and can now be applied by State government organisations within Western Australia to ensure records in common use throughout State government are disposed of in a legal and timely manner.
The GRDALG (DA 2023-005) supersedes the General Disposal Authority for Local Government Records (DA 2015-001/1) and can now be applied by local governments within Western Australia to records of local government activities / record categories typically performed in the public administration of local governments.
The superseded General Disposal Authorities can no longer be used to sentence or dispose of State records from 17 January 2024 onwards.
Major updates to the new GRDAs include:
- Name change from General Disposal Authorities to General Retention and Disposal Authorities.
- Updating, adding or removing categories to align with legislative requirements to keep records for specific retention periods.
- Ensuring classes are consistent across both the GRDALG and GRDASG where appropriate.
- Rationalising retention periods to reduce the number of classes.
- Amalgamating certain activities that have the same retention period.
- Changing reference numbers to accommodate updates.
- Changing ‘disposal action’ for records classed as State archives from ‘Required as State archives’ to ‘Archive’.
- Changing ‘custody action’ for records classes as State archives from ‘Retain [x] years after action completed, then transfer to SRO’, to ‘Retain as State archives’.
- Removing the function / activity REGISTERS and adding a note to retain in accordance with the subject matter to which they relate.
- Increasing the retention period of Personnel records from 75 years to 100 years.
- Revising terminology in functions and activities to align with the Work Health and Safety Act 2020.
- Including the function / activity of PRIVACY to cover certain records containing personal information.
- Integrating the retention requirements of the following Disposal Authorities, now superseded, into the GRDAs:
- DA 2020-003 - General Retention and Disposal Authority for Incidents and Allegations of Child Abuse or Neglect
- DA 2021-010 - Ad Hoc Disposal Authority - COVID-19 Health and Vaccination Information
- DA 2022-004/2 - Ad Hoc Disposal Authority - User Data in Government Mobile Device Applications (“Apps”)
- Other changes as appropriate to the specific needs of the State or local government sectors, which are outlined in the applicable supporting documentation.
Supporting documentation to assist with the implementation of the GRDAs includes:
- Linking Tables to outline the changes from the superseded GDAs to the new GRDAs.
- GRDALG Linking Table
- GRDASG Linking Table
- Revised SRO Guideline - Records Retention and Disposal Instructions and SRO Guideline - Sanitizing Digital Media and Devices into a single SRO Guideline - Records Retention, Disposal and Destruction.
- Revised SRO Guideline - Resentencing Records: implementing a revised retention and disposal authority.
- Revised SRO Glossary of Terms.
- Revised Recordkeeping Plan templates to reflect new GRDAs, along with other minor changes to update the templates.
The State Records Office has notified individual State organisations and local governments to advise of the requirement to use the new GRDAs and has announced the updates on social media pages.
For more information on the use of the GRDAs, please contact the State Records Office on sro@sro.wa.gov.au.
