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Welcome to the EuroPris Knowledge Management System. The table below shows questions and responses from European National Agencies. Select a question for more information or use the filters on the left to narrow down questions based on Agency or Category.
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Introduction: The Dutch Custodial Institutions Agency has still 16 kilometers of archives in paper from 1976 till now. A study group is reconsidering which files of this mass of paper should be kept forever and which files can and ought to be destroyed. In The Netherlands files that are no longer valuable for operational management can be kept when they are estimated to be of value for research, history, or from another perspective. If this is not the case, they will be destroyed. The study group would like to be able to compare what the practice is in your country in this perspective.
The state archives in Brussels have compiled selection lists for the penitentiary institutions since 2008 – both for the main administration and for the external services of the penitentiary institutions – in which guidelines have been included with regard to the retention periods of the respective files and which files have to be transferred to the state archives after their retention period.
If you do have such an appraisal policy, can you describe it please?All personal data of inmates are kept no longer than 30 years after the release. After that period they have to be kept in the Archives of the Republic of Slovenia.
If you do have such an appraisal policy, can you describe it please?Generally other files need to be marked on how long they are allowed to be kept (2, 5 or 10 years). We have a special classification plan where expiration date is prescribed.
Files are dealt with in accordance with a Retention & Disposal Schedule. Dependant on record type the Schedule recommends various actions such as: permanent retention, appraisal, retention for a timed period and destruction.
If you do have such an appraisal policy, can you describe it please?The Retention and Disposal Schedule is formally approved by the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland and senior officials in the Department of Justice (of which Northern Ireland Prison Service is an Executive Agency). It is written based on legislative and operational requirements and directs the reader on how to deal with their file dependant on the file’s subject matter. The relevant legislation governing the Schedule are: the Public Records Act (NI) 1923, updated by UK legislation: the Data Protection Act (DPA) 1998 and the Freedom of Information Act (FOI) 2000.
The Danish Ministry of Culture administers the State Archives. The Minister of Culture’s powers regarding the archival activities of public authorities are defined by the Archives Act. The provisions of the Act on the management of records by public authorities apply to all activities conducted by the Public Administrative Authorities and the Judicial System. However, rules and regulations differ from one type of authority to another. Thus, only state authorities, the Courts and the recognised denominations are under obligation to transfer records to the State Archives. The Act, furthermore, authorises the Minister of Culture to specify rules and regulations relating to transfer, etc.
If you do have such an appraisal policy, can you describe it please?According to the Archives Act the State authorities, shall, unless there are opposing considerations to be taken into account, transfer their records to the State Archives before they are 30 years old. The Minister for Culture shall lay down more detailed rules on the time for transfer, including rules on such cases where postponement of the time of transfer may be allowed. The Minister for Culture may determine to lay down more detailed rules on the time for transfer of records stored on electronic media.
The Scottish Prison Service has been generating files since the mid-1800s. There are two main kinds of prison files – files that relate to prison business and files that relate to individual prisoners. Prison business files are reviewed 5 years after the file is closed. At that point the file is either retained or sent for destruction. If the file is retained then it is reviewed again 15 years later and a further decision is made whether to retain it or destroy it. A list of files that SPS considers are ready for destruction is sent to the National Records of Scotland who manage the Scottish national archives. The National Records of Scotland then make the final decision on whether a file should be destroyed or whether it should be preserved permanently in the national archives. Around 5% of prison files are considered of long term national interest and are stored in the national archives; the remaining 95% of prison files are destroyed when they are no longer required. Files that relate to individual prisoners are retained according to a detailed retention schedule. Most files are destroyed 5 years after a prisoner is liberated. Files that relate to life sentence prisoners or sex offenders are kept until 100 years after the prisoner’s date of birth and are then destroyed. A small number of files that relate to prisoners of long term national interest are sent to the national archives for permanent preservation.
If you do have such an appraisal policy, can you describe it please?The National Records of Scotland carries out the appraisal to decide whether a file should be retained permanently in the Scottish national archives. The kinds of files they are looking for include files that relate to: • deliberations, processes, functions and structures of government; • formulation and implementation of policy; • interaction of policies with individuals, communities and the physical environment; • individuals or events of long term national interest • registers of prisoners in custody.
In Hungary a Government Decree gives the main rules connected to the file management of public institutions. As a public institution Hungarian Prison Service has its own inner regulations based on the above mentioned decree. Files that are no longer valuable for operational management must be archived and kept in a so called ‘central record office’. The Hungarian Prison Service has more central record offices (e.g. in the Hungarian Prison Service Headquarters, in prisons, etc.). Based on where the documents were issued, they need to be archived by the territorially responsible central record office (i.e. documents issued in Budapest Remand Prison should be achieved in Budapest Remand Prison, etc.).
If you do have such an appraisal policy, can you describe it please?The regulations contain how long archived files must be kept before destroying them. Depending on the subject of documents keeping time can be: - 1 year (e.g. permissions to enter to a prison) - 2 years (e.g. documents of candidates applying for a job) - 5 years (e.g. working plans of prisons) - 10 years (e.g. protocol of meetings) - 15 years (e.g. documents related to the prisons’ security systems) - 25 years (e.g. registry of firearms) - 30 years (e.g. application for employer loan) - 50 years (e.g. handover records of prison governors) - 75 years (e.g. documents related to redeployment to other services) - not destroyable (e.g. organizational rules) Not destroyable files are to be forwarded from the record office to the competent archives based on location after a certain keeping time. There are some exceptions that are not to be forwarded to the archives despite the fact that they are not destroyable. Keeping time of a not destroyable file can be: - 15 years - 20 years - 25 years - 50 years A record about files which are to be destroyed after a certain time must be sent to the competent archives before destruction. The archives makes a final decision about destroying. If the archives finds that a file can be useful from any perspectives in the future, it is not allowed to be destroyed.
The Latvian Prison Administration (LPA) policy for determining the time period for records retention is co-ordinated with the State policy for evaluating and retaining records. Permanently (forever) are retained those records that contain information regarding the basic operations of the institution. For those records that are created only in the Latvian Prison Administration and in its structural units, the LPA has developed a list of time periods for records retention that has been co-ordinated with the National Archive. The time period for records retention for every type of record in this list is set according with the legal effect of the information the record contains. In the LPA permanently are retained the records that contain information regarding the basic operations – conceptual prisoner monitoring, guarding, social rehabilitation and registry matters, orders regarding basic operations, reports regarding basic operations. For the other records there are set a particular time period for retention after which the records are evaluated and destroyed according with the order set in normative acts. There are different time periods for retention – 2, 3, 5, 10 years. The time periods for retention of records concerning personnel and accounting matters are set in the normative acts issued by the State. They are the same for all government institutions. These are not records that are permanently retained.
If you do have such an appraisal policy, can you describe it please?Please see the answer to previous question.
In Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania the most files be destroyed and some others are kept forever in the national archive.
If you do have such an appraisal policy, can you describe it please?In Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania the retention periods are regulated by law. Depending on the different themes the files has to be kept for different periods (e.g. 5 years, 10 years or 30 years). After the legal retention period the national archive check whether the files are estimated to be of value for history or research. If this is the case, the files are kept. If not, the files will be destroyed.
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Finnish Criminal Sanctions Agency has 8 kilometers of paper documents at the moment. Part of the documents are kept permanently in accordance with the archive formation plan. The National Archives of Finland controls the law and the rules of keeping the documents. Finnish public authorities like Finnish Criminal Sanctions Agency follow these rules. Documents that are related to Finnish Criminal Sanctions Agency’s core business or which have research of historical value (national cultural heritage) are kept permanently. In total about 80% of the documents are kept for limited time and about 20% are kept permanently.
If you do have such an appraisal policy, can you describe it please?The Finnish Criminal Sanctions Agency has archive formation plan which is from year 2004. It is under reformation because we’re moving to electric archive. At the moment most of the documents related to agency’s core business are kept permanently and some of the documents are kept 10, 20 or 50 years. In the new archive formation plan we’ve shorten many of the retention periods but the final acceptance is made by the National Archives of Finland.
According to §140 Part 1 ThürJVollzGB the retention period for prison files is 30 year.
If you do have such an appraisal policy, can you describe it please?§140 Part 1 ThürJVollzGB http://landesrecht.thueringen.de/jportal/?quelle=jlink&query=JVollzGB+TH&psml=bsthueprod.psml&max=true&aiz=true#jlr-JVollzGBTHpP140