Official access is an agreement from an agency to let a particular person access their records for an approved purpose. It is different from public access because it allows access to records which may not be available to the public (such as records that are less than 30 years old, records that have not been assessed for public access, or records which have been assessed and found to contain exempt information).
There are a number of reasons why an agency might need to authorise official access to records held by the National Archives. Apart from the need for staff to consult archival records to meet the ongoing needs of day-to-day administration, access may also be needed to:
Official access is normally granted by agencies to enable their officers to use records held in the Archives’ custody. As well as the staff of an agency, this may also include consultants or contractors engaged or commissioned by the agency to undertake specific tasks. In addition, where a Commonwealth agency has been privatised and certain records of that agency remain under Commonwealth control, the agency accepting responsibility for the control of those records may grant official access to the company that has bought the business of the privatised agency.
Any person granted official access is required to abide by the terms set out in the authorisation form, and the Archives’ reading room rules, described in Fact Sheet 3 – Reading room rules.
Sometimes it may be necessary for officers of one agency to have official access to the records of another agency, see Access to other agencies' records.
Official access must be approved by a manager in the agency controlling the records. Precisely who may authorise official access is decided within each agency. In some cases the approval of a line supervisor may be appropriate, while in others, depending on the nature of the records, the approval of a program manager or a Senior Executive Service officer may be required.
The official access authorisation form must be completed before the National Archives can provide a person with official access to records.
Completing the authorisation form requires the clear identification of the:
By completing this form you are providing the Archives with the information needed to ensure that those authorised by your agency are given access to the records they require for the task being undertaken. It also assists the Archives to readily identify the records that are being sought.
The official access authorisation form asks the authorising officer to nominate the date on which the authorisation should cease. Annual authorisation may be issued for officials undertaking longer term projects, but these authorisations need to be renewed by 31 January each year.
Officers seeking to use official access must be able to identify the records they wish to use. In order to retrieve records, the Archives needs series numbers and item numbers. Where this information is provided, access to records can generally be given in accordance with the standards and rules of the public reading room. If only a general subject area is known, our reference staff can provide assistance in using the finding aids and reference tools to identify series and item number details.
The National Archives will only provide photocopies of records if this is approved on the official access authorisation form. Agencies will be charged for the copies provided. Please see Fact Sheet 51 for details of charges.