On the National Archives surveillance

Obligations of the National Archives of Iceland

The National Archives of Iceland has a statutory obligation to monitor those who are obligated by law to transfer their archives to a Public Archive according to Article 13 of Act No. 77/2014 on Public Archives. It states that the National Archives shall “monitor the implementation of this Act, of any Regulation issued by the Minister on the basis thereof, or of rules laid down pursuant to Article 8, by entities subject to an obligation of transfer; such entities must grant access to their premises for the purposes of inspections carried out as part of the monitoring of public archives;

On the basis of this provision and the rules that apply to the archiving and records management of the entities that are required to transfer their archives, the National Archives of Iceland has formed structured surveillance, which consist of regular surveillance surveys and on planned audits to the facilities of those required to transfer documents by law.

The National Archives of Iceland conducted its first comprehensive surveillance survey of the State's entities required by law to transfer their archives in 2004. The next survey was however not conducted until 2012. Since then, surveillance surveys have been conducted every four years. In 2017, a survey was also conducted on the records of municipal offices that are under the National Archives surveillance. The National Archives of Iceland plans to conduct such comprehensive surveillance surveys every four years to get an overview of the status of the country's archiving and records management and to monitor its development. To promote effective and transparent surveillance, the National Archives of Iceland has developed a maturity model where the status of the archiving and records management in the public sector is assessed based on the results of the surveillance survey. The results of the surveillance survey are also used to decide the surveillance emphasis for the next four years.

Laws, regulations and rules relating to the custody and records management of the persons subject to the obligation of delivery

Law

• Law no. 77/2014 on public archives

• Information Act no. 140/2012

• Administrative Law no. 37/1993

• Local Government Act no. 138/2011

• Law no. 90/2018 on personal protection and processing of personal information

• Law no. 145/1994 on accounting

• Law no. 55/2009 on medical records

• Law no. 21/1991 on bankruptcy etc.

• Law no. 88/2008 on handling criminal cases

• Law no. 91/1991 on the handling of civil cases

• Law no. 68/2011 on investigative committees

Regulations

• Regulation no. 283/1994 on regional archives

Rules

• Rules on the preservation and deletion of financial accounting documents (No. 1022/2023)

• Rules on the deletion of examination results and assessed assessment materials by entities required to transfer their archives (No. 913/2021)

• Rules no. 877/2020 on the notification, approval and submission of electronic databases of entities required to transfer their archives

• Rules no. 331/2020 on the handling, storage and deletion of e-mails of entities required to transfer their archives

• Rules no. 85/2018 on the registration of cases and legal documents of entities required to transfer their archives

• Rules no. 573/2015 on the packaging, registration and transmission of paper archives of entities required to transfer their archives

• Rules no. 572/2015 on the case keys of entities required to transfer their archives

• Rules no. 571/2015 on document storage plans of entities required to transfer their archives

• Rules no. 100/2014 on the delivery of the custody of data from the electronic data systems of entities required to transfer their archives

• Rules no. 627/2010 on storage in the archives of municipalities and their institutions

• Rules no. 320/2016 on the registration of communications in the Government Council of Iceland

• Advertisement no. 22/2013 on guidelines for writing the minutes of local council meetings

• Rules no. 189/2009 on the registration of cases at district courts, registers, record keeping, etc. In criminal cases