Section 9: Our Records Management and Disposal policy
The Scottish Government has in place Record Retention and Disposition Schedules in respect of all documents that it creates and holds. These Schedules set out the lengths of time for which all types of records must be held. This means that whilst FOISA is retrospective, it is only possible to provide copies of Scottish Government records that are still in existence. The current Scottish Government policy and procedures in relation to records management are set out in our Records Management Manual which is available through this Publication Scheme under Class 3 - Publications.
Some Scottish Government records are selected to be permanently preserved at the National Archives of Scotland. The Schedules referred to above set out what types of records will normally be preserved. Once transferred to the National Archives of Scotland, these records are made publicly available and are listed on the NAS online catalogue.