• Equality Duty
• Employee Engagement
• Climate Change Duties and Environmental Policy
• Health & Safety Policy Statement
• Publication Scheme
• Open Data
• Records Management Policy
• Records Management Plan
• Data Protection Policy
• Access Policy
• Estates Review

PDF files require Acrobat Reader. Download it free [1].

Equality Duty

• Report on Mainstreaming the Equality Duty in National Records of Scotland and Equality Outcomes [2]  (812 KB PDF)
• NRS Mainstreaming Report 2013 [3] (152 KB PDF)
• NRS Equality Outcomes 2013 - 2015 [4] (77 KB PDF)

Archived Equality Schemes [5]

Employee Engagement

The Employee Survey is part of the Civil Service People Survey which covers 98 UK Departments. This is an important part of a programme of work to develop a cross government approach to employee engagement.

The purpose of the survey is to obtain employee views about various aspects of working in the Scottish Government and NRS. It looks to identify what works well and what could be improved with a particular focus on employee engagement. It provides us with information that can help us develop appropriate action to make us a more effective organisation, recognising the acknowledged benefits of having an engaged workforce.

Documents below contain our engagement survey results:

• NRS People Survey 2016 [6] (617 KB PDF)
• NRS People Survey 2015 [7] (560 KB PDF)
• NRS People Survey 2014 [8] (573 KB PDF)
• NRS People Survey 2013 [9] (736 KB PDF)
• NRS Employee Survey 2012 [10] (730 KB PDF)
• NRS Employee Survey 2011 [11] (813 KB PDF)

Climate Change Duties and Environmental Policy

Action to mitigate current and future effects of climate change by reducing greenhouse gas emissions is a duty placed on all public bodies through the Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009. These documents set out our organisational commitment to minimise our impact on the environment, the actions we intend to take and the improvements we aim to achieve.

• NRS Carbon Management Plan [12] (1.3 MB PDF)
• NRS Environmental Policy [13] (208 KB PDF)

Health and Safety Policy Statement

The National Records of Scotland regards good standards in health and safety to be an integral element of efficient business management. To support this key objective we ensure adequate resources are made available to develop and maintain a comprehensive health and safety management system and through pursuing progressive improvements through the NRS Health and Safety Policy by:

• Ensuring commitment of all employees to clear health and safety objectives
• Controlling workplace hazards by the application of risk assessment methodology
• Taking responsibility for controlling factors that could lead to ill health, injury or loss
• Communicating appropriate health and safety information, encouraging co-operation and establishing appropriate levels of competence

We will by our actions seek to promote and develop a positive health and safety culture, and ensure that:

• All statutory requirements are observed and are treated as the minimum standards to be applied to all our activities;
• Employees are made aware of potential hazards and the precautions to be adopted, by providing information, instruction, training and supervision;
• Steps are taken to identify the immediate and underlying causes of work related injuries and ill health and implement any preventive action necessary;
• Employees are actively encouraged to participate in health and safety arrangements and in conjunction with their local health and safety representatives submit ideas and suggestions for improving standards;
• Access to professional and knowledgeable advice on health and safety matters will be made a vailable;
• That health and safety is developed and improved in an active partnership arrangement with recognized Trade Union Representatives, and NRS managers and staff;
• There are effective arrangements in place to maintain safety in activities that involve the general public and work conducted by our contractors;
• There is an ongoing process of policy development and implementation to meet new and existing legislation;
• There is a formal periodic review of performance and management system arrangements.

NRS Publication Scheme

Freedom of Information: National Records of Scotland Guide to Information - Covering the Responsibilities of both the Registrar General for Scotland and the Keeper of the Records of Scotland

The Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (the Act) requires Scottish public authorities to produce and maintain a publication scheme. Authorities are under a legal obligation to:

• publish the classes of information that they make routinely available
• tell the public how to access the information and what it might cost.

National Records of Scotland has adopted the 'Model Publication Scheme ' produced by the Scottish Information Commissioner. You can see this scheme on the Scottish Information Commissioner's [14] website.

The purpose of this Guide to Information is to:

• allow the public to see what information is available (and what is not available) in relation to each class (A class is a group of information having one or more common characteristics such as subject or origin.)
• state what charges may be applied
• explain how to find the information easily
• provide contact details for enquiries and to get help with accessing the information
• explain how to request information we hold that has not been published.

A copy of our Guide to Information can be found at:

• NRS Guide to Information - Keeper of the Records of Scotland and the Registrar General for Scotland [15] (176 KB PDF)

Open Data

Open Data is data that can be used and shared by anyone, for any purpose, without restriction and for free.  Routinely publishing Open Data increases transparency, helps the public to access data and helps to deliver excellent online public services.  Open Data is not commercially sensitive and contains no personal information which could be used to identify individuals. 

The Scottish Government has an ‘ambition for all data by 2017 to be published in a format of 3* or above.’ [16]  All of NRS’s data relating to official statistics is currently compliant with this standard.

The Scottish Government’s Open Data Strategy [16], published in February 2015, states:

Organisational Open Data publication plans will realise the vision of a Scotland which makes its public data open, we need all organisations to develop and implement their own Open Data publication plans. Organisations should identify core data which they plan to make open (this includes one off data sets and time series data sets which will be published on a recurring basis).

Following on from the Scottish Government Strategy, NRS have developed our own Open Data publishing plan.

The Plan published below contains a list of our core statistical data sets and how we measure ourselves against Open Data standards [17]. The Plan is a living document and will constantly evolve and we will continue to add other information / data to the plan as appropriate.

All data contained in this publication plan are covered by the Open Government licence [18], which makes it easy to reuse the data subject to a few conditions. Should you have any questions around any data sets included please contact: - statistics customer services [19].

Open Data Publishing Plan [20] (197 KB PDF)

Records Management Policy

The systematic management of our own administrative records is essential in order to protect and preserve them as evidence of actions, support future activities and business decisions and ensure accountability to present and future stakeholders and customers. The Records Management Policy [21] sets out the procedures and practices needed to control and manage our own records efficiently and effectively.

Records Management Plan

The Public Records (Scotland) Act 2011 obliges named public authorities to prepare and implement a Records Management Plan (RMP) setting out proper arrangements for the management of their corporate records. The offices of Keeper of the Records of Scotland and Registrar General for Scotland are named as separate authorities in the schedule of the Act. As both offices are currently held by the Chief Executive of National Records of Scotland, a joint RMP was submitted in April 2013 and agreed by the Keeper in June 2013. 

You can download the version of the Records Management Plan that was agreed by the Keeper in 2013:

Download the NRS Records Management Plan - May 2013 [22](95 KB PDF)

The plan is a living document and will evolve as NRS seeks to continuously improve arrangements for the management of its corporate records. Please find the latest version of the Records Management Plan of National Records of Scotland (NRS) below:

Download the NRS Records Management Plan – June 2017 [23](261 KB PDF)

You can read the Keeper’s latest assessment report of the NRS Records Management Plan (under the Progress Update Review (PUR) process) below:

Download the Progress Update Review (PUR) Final Report by the PRSA Assessment Team for National Records of Scotland [24] (391 KB PDF)
 

Data Protection Policy

We are required by law to comply with the Data Protection Act 1998 which regulates the processing of personal information. Our data protection policy sets out our obligations and demonstrates our commitment to compliance. We require all of our employees to comply with the Act and to ensure that any personal information we collect is used fairly, stored safely and not disclosed to any person unlawfully. This applies both to the information which we create and receive in the course of administering our own business, and to the records of organisations and private individuals which are deposited with us for historical purposes. A new EU General Data Protection Regulation will come into effect on 25 May 2018. We are in the process of implementing the Regulation and will ensure that all of our policies and operations are compliant with it.  For more information see our data protection [25] page.

NRS Data Protection Policy [26]

Access Policy

Our Access Policy describes how National Records of Scotland makes archives publicly available using a variety of channels, including onsite services, digital services, education and learning and in partnership with other organisations. You can read it on our Research [27] page.

Estates Review

In line with the requirement of all Government bodies and departments to ensure our estates portfolio remains fit for purpose and cost-effective we embarked on our Estates Review last year. We recognise the important role we have as the guardians of some of Scotland’s most treasured possessions and information and are committed to making sure that we do that job well at the same time as improving our services to customers.

• Estates Review [28]
• Executive Summary - Strategic Review of NRS Estate [29](463 KB PDF)