New Zealand · Public Records Act 2005

The Act that says you may not delete this — and proves whether you did

For public offices and local authorities — AccessPoint applies the create-and-maintain duties, retention floors, and disposal-only-under-authority rules of the Public Records Act to the casework it holds, with the evidence an audit expects.

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New Zealand — Public Records Act at a glance

Core duty
Create and maintain full and accurate records of affairs, in accordance with normal, prudent business practice
Disposal
Only under an authority granted by the Chief Archivist
Retention floors
Minimum periods applied to casework before disposal is possible
Transfer
Records of long-term value transferred, generally at 25 years
Oversight
Chief Archivist audit of public offices
Languages
English

Built for New Zealand — Public Records Act

One platform for the whole access-and-privacy mandate, pre-configured for this regime and running in your own Microsoft 365 tenant.

Retention across five registers

Requests, assessments, incidents, complaints, and risks each carry a retention period from their type. A closed case becomes eligible for disposition on a defined basis rather than sitting in a folder nobody is willing to touch.

Disposal only under authority

Nothing is deleted because it is old. Disposition runs as a reviewed step tied to the authority relied on, with what was disposed of, when, and by whom recorded on the ledger.

Evidence, not assertions

A hash-chained, append-only audit ledger with server-side integrity verification demonstrates that the record has not been altered — which is the difference between claiming good recordkeeping and showing it.

Transfer at 25 years

Track which records are approaching the transfer point so the obligation surfaces on a schedule rather than arriving as a discovery during an audit.

Records created as work happens

The Act's first duty is to make records in the first place. Because case activity, decisions, and correspondence are captured as the work is done, the record is a by-product rather than a separate chore.

In your own tenant

Records stay inside your own Microsoft 365 and Azure tenant, on storage you control — which matters when the retention obligation runs for decades.

Pairs with your access pack

The OIA tells you what to release. The Public Records Act tells you what has to still exist when they ask.

New Zealand's information obligations only work together. LGOIMA and the OIA create a right to information a public office holds — which presupposes that it still holds it, and that what it holds is complete. The Public Records Act supplies that half: full and accurate records made as business is conducted, kept for defined periods, disposed of only under the Chief Archivist's authority, and transferred when they reach long-term value. An organisation that runs access requests well but disposes of casework informally will eventually answer an OIA request with a gap it cannot explain, and answer an audit with a policy rather than evidence. Installing this pack alongside the OIA or LGOIMA pack puts both duties on the same cases and the same ledger.

Made, not reconstructed Records created as the work happens.
Kept for the period Retention floors applied across five registers.
Disposed with authority Disposition tied to the authority relied on.

Configured out of the box

Installing the nz-public-records jurisdiction pack seeds your tenant with everything this regime needs — a starting point you can adjust, not a lock-in.

Related guide: FOI Workflow Quick Check
  • The Public Records Act 2005 as the legal-authority spine
  • Retention periods across the request, assessment, incident, complaint, and risk registers
  • Retention floors preventing disposition before the minimum period has run
  • Disposition as a reviewed step tied to the disposal authority relied on
  • Transfer tracking for records approaching the long-term-value point
  • A hash-chained, append-only audit ledger with server-side integrity verification
  • Recordkeeping reporting for Chief Archivist audit readiness
  • Designed to install alongside the OIA or LGOIMA pack rather than replace it

New Zealand — Public Records Act Questions

Is this a full records management system?
No, and it should not be mistaken for one. It applies the Public Records Act's duties to the casework AccessPoint holds — access requests, assessments, incidents, complaints, and risks — with retention, disposition, and audit evidence for those records. Your wider corporate recordkeeping across the organisation remains the domain of your EDRMS and Microsoft 365 retention policies.

How does disposal work?
Retention periods come from each case type, and a closed case becomes eligible for disposition once its period has run. Disposition is then a reviewed action tied to the disposal authority relied on, with what was disposed of, when, and by whom recorded — because the Act permits disposal only under an authority granted by the Chief Archivist.

Why install this alongside an access pack?
Because the two obligations are halves of the same thing. The OIA and LGOIMA give a right to information the office holds; the Public Records Act determines what it must still hold and for how long. Running both against the same cases means a retention decision and an access decision are made about the same record, on the same ledger.

Where do the records reside?
Entirely within your own Microsoft 365 and Azure tenant, in the region you choose. Records, disposition history, and the audit ledger never leave your control — no third-party cloud and no cross-border data transfers.

Run Public Records Act Duties in Your Own Tenant

Try AccessPoint free for 30 days, configured for New Zealand public offices. No credit card required.

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