Hi,
Totally agree with Neil's comments .. the applicable British Standard is BSI BIP0008:2014 - Code of Practice fpr Evidential Weight and legal admissibility of information stored electronically.
As part of my work I have produced a guide for service users within my authority on considerations for what to do with stored paperwork (eg. identifying whether it is a record, and of so whether and it what format it should be kept). My advice to users re scanning and destruction or paper originals includes:
6.4 Recording paper documents electronically
Many paper documents that contain records of council business can be scanned and indexed to provide an electronic master record of the data, after which time the original paper copy can be destroyed using the council’s Records Disposal Procedure.
6.4.1 When is an electronic copy the “master” record?
For electronically stored images of an original paper document, it can normally be considered as the “master” record if it has been captured in line with principles which will ensure its authenticity. That is to say that in the event of legal challenge (by a Court or other statutory body) the Council could make a strong case that the document is a true representation of the original – ie. complete, unaltered and of fully legible image quality.
A British Standards Institute (BSI) Code of Practice sets out five principles of information management that an organisation should follow to demonstrate an electronic document’s authenticity. (BSI BIP0008:2014 – Code of Practice for Legal Admissibility and Evidential Weight for information Stored Electronically).
Services can maximise their compliance with the principles by ensuring they follow a robust and documented procedure for
• document preparation
• electronic data capture
• quality checking of scanned images
• audit trail
• document retention and destruction
Services need to make a risk assessment as to whether it is appropriate to retain electronic images of documents as “master” records, based on the nature of the document and the likelihood of legal challenge.
The following types of document are generally considered to be unsuitable for conversion to electronic master copies:
• Poor quality original documents – eg. thin paper, legibility problems caused by rips, stains, faded writing, text
obscured by eg. staples.
• Colour combinations for paper / text which produce poor quality images.
• Originals which have amendments that cannot be identified on a scanned image.
• Bound / bulky documents which cannot be separated for scanning.
• Personal documentation relating to vulnerable adults and children.
• Any documents that provide legal certification of an event
• Any documents that are authenticated by an attachment eg. a wax seal.
• Any document type where there is a high likelihood of legal challenge to its authenticity.
Hope his helps.
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