Archiving under the archives act in public administration
Preservation disposal and journaling
If you work in a municipality, region or state authority, there is a special law for how cases and documents must be handled over time: the archives act. The law only applies to public administration, and it sets some very specific limits on what an employee may do with old cases — limits that are stricter than many imagine.
§You must not just delete
The most important rule to know is that public authorities must not discard — that is destroy — their archives without permission from the State Archives. This applies whether it is a physical file or a digital case. An employee cannot unilaterally decide that an old case takes up too much space and therefore can be deleted. The authority must assess whether the material still has legal or administrative value and that assessment itself must take place within the deletion provisions the State Archives has approved.
§Record keeping is only relevant in private companies
It is worth knowing the difference between two concepts that are often confused. Journalising is about registering and organising cases while they are active — it is action-oriented and provides an overview in the ongoing case handling. Archiving, on the other hand, is about preserving the material for posterity, so that the actual course of events in the administration can be documented, even many years later. A case that is journalised correctly from the start is far easier to archive correctly at the end.
| Concept | Purpose | When |
|---|---|---|
| Record correctly, objectively and confidentially | Overview in active case processing | While the matter is in progress |
| Archiving | Documentation of the management's history | When the matter is concluded |
| Disposal | Destruction of material with no further value | Only after permission from the National Archives |
§The role of the National Archives
The National Archives sets the detailed rules for retention and disposal and supervises that public bodies follow them. If a public body determines that material can be destroyed, it must be done safely — for example properly shredded if it contains personal information — and always within the framework set by an approved disposal instruction.
- 01The Archives Act only applies to public administration
- 02Disposal requires permission from the National Archives
- 03Journalisering ≠ arkivering — de tjener forskellige formål
- 04Destruction of personal data must be done safely and responsibly
As an office apprentice in public administration the most important lesson is that systematisation is not just about being able to find a file today — it is about the administration's history being documented and verified for many years to come.
“The public archive is society's memory — and that memory is built up by the journaling you do every single day.”