Introduction
This policy sets out why and how records which are held, preserved and made available by National Records of Scotland (NRS) may need to be closed to further public access, or taken down from view on our public websites.
This policy applies to the following:
- public, legal and private records which are transferred to the Keeper of the Records of Scotland for preservation as archives;
- the statutory registers relating to life events which are created, held and
maintained by the Registrar General for Scotland;
- content published on our online and onsite resources, including digital images of records;
- the NRS Web Archive which is available online.
This policy applies to both records which are open for consultation and records which are closed to the public.
Decision making process
Anyone can submit a request for the reclosure or takedown of a record. Requests must be made in writing. A separate process is in place for the owners of web archived content and is set out in section 2 below.
Reclosure or takedown requests relating to any records other than those on the NRS Web Archive can be emailed to the NRS Information Governance Team at: informationgovernance@nrscotland.gov.uk or sent to the following address:
Information Governance Team
National Records of Scotland
HM General Register House
2 Princes Street
Edinburgh
EH1 3YY
In your request, please provide your contact details, identify the record(s) in question (including the catalogue reference number or web URL), and your reasons for the request. Once a written request is received which appears to meet one or more off the conditions for reclosure or takedown set out below (see section 3), the record in question will usually be temporarily withdrawn from public access, until the request can be reviewed.
All requests will be reviewed by a Reclosure and/or Takedown Panel. The Panel will be convened by NRS Information Governance, composed of members of NRS staff with expertise in Freedom of Information and Data Protection legislation, along with records and catalogue specialists, and chaired by the relevant NRS Information Asset Owner. Panel reviews will be based against the criteria set out below and will be completed within 30 working days of the request being received. The Panel will consider the issues and reach a recommendation on whether a record should be closed or remain open. The final decision on access, informed by the Panel’s recommendation, will be taken by the Record Owner of the record(s) in question.
Request authors will then be informed of this decision and have the right to appeal this decision within 40 working days via the NRS complaints procedure.
At the end of this process, the record(s) in question will either be reopened/made available, or continue to be closed for access until such time as it is appropriate for them to be reopened/made available. If only some of the information needs to be withheld then the remainder of the record(s) will be opened or a surrogate copy with appropriate redactions made available. Information about reclosed records and web pages removed under takedown will be published on our website.
Decision making process for web archive records
Takedown requests from owners of records made available through the NRS Web Archive should be emailed to the NRS Web Continuity Service at digital_records@nrscotland.gov.uk
In your request, please provide the URL(s) you wish to have taken down, and your reasons for the request.
NRS will aim to take down web archived content within one working day of the request. Although public access will be removed, the content will not be deleted or deaccessioned from the web archive collection.
Owing to its dynamic format, website content can be subject to more regular change than other records. Consequently, routine requests for takedown within the NRS Web Archive made by owners of the websites will normally be handled by the NRS Digital Records Unit by correspondence rather than be subject a Takedown Panel. The Digital Records Unit will arrange for the relevant URLs to be taken down and will confirm this with the owners.
Should the Digital Records Unit have concerns about a takedown request, NRS reserves the right to convene a Takedown Panel under the terms set out in Section 1. Reasons for concern may include a significant amount of content being taken down or requests not falling within the conditions for reclosure or takedown set out in Section 3.
Requests for takedowns made by other parties will be considered by a Takedown Panel (see section 1 above).
NRS will publish information about takedown requests on our website.
Conditions for Reclosure and Takedown
Reclosure or takedown will be considered if one of the following criteria is met:
- A record may be found to contain personal or sensitive personal information about a living individual and continued access to this would be unlawful or unfair under the UK General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR), Data Protection Act 2018 or the Human Rights Act 1998.
- A record may have been opened/published online in good faith, but changed circumstances mean it is now considered covered by an exemption in the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 (FOISA) or the Environmental Information (Scotland) Regulations 2004 (EIRs) or its reclosure/takedown is otherwise now considered appropriate.
- A record may have been opened/published online in error and its reclosure/takedown is deemed necessary to correct this mistake.
- The content of a record published online may be an infringement of copyright.
- The content of a record published online may be defamatory or obscene.
- The content of a record opened/published online may infringe confidentiality undertakings given in support of legal proceedings.
- The content of a record published online may cause serious and real administrative difficulties to the record’s owner, and the owner has requested takedown for a specified and limited period of time.
- A record published online may present a cyber or information security risk.
Information rights
This policy does not affect your statutory rights to request information in closed records under Data Protection and Freedom of Information legislation or the Environmental Information Regulations. Requests will be handled in the usual way and a further review carried out to determine whether any exemptions on access still apply.
