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Information and public services for the Island of Jersey

L'înformâtion et les sèrvices publyis pouor I'Île dé Jèrri

Publication of the Annual Report on the Work of the Jersey Heritage Trust and the Archivist under the Public Records (Jersey) Law 2002.

A formal published “Ministerial Decision” is required as a record of the decision of a Minister (or an Assistant Minister where they have delegated authority) as they exercise their responsibilities and powers.

Ministers are elected by the States Assembly and have legal responsibilities and powers as “corporation sole” under the States of Jersey Law 2005 by virtue of their office and in their areas of responsibility, including entering into agreements, and under any legislation conferring on them powers.

An accurate record of “Ministerial Decisions” is vital to effective governance, including:

  • demonstrating that good governance, and clear lines of accountability and authority, are in place around decisions-making – including the reasons and basis on which a decision is made, and the action required to implement a decision

  • providing a record of decisions and actions that will be available for examination by States Members, and Panels and Committees of the States Assembly; the public, organisations, and the media; and as a historical record and point of reference for the conduct of public affairs

Ministers are individually accountable to the States Assembly, including for the actions of the departments and agencies which discharge their responsibilities.

The Freedom of Information Law (Jersey) Law 2011 is used as a guide when determining what information is be published. While there is a presumption toward publication to support of transparency and accountability, detailed information may not be published if, for example, it would constitute a breach of data protection, or disclosure would prejudice commercial interest.

A decision made (30/06/2008) regarding: Publication of the Annual Report on the Work of the Jersey Heritage Trust and the Archivist under the Public Records (Jersey) Law 2002.

Decision Reference: MD-ESC-2008-0014 

Decision Summary Title):

Publication of the Annual Report on the Work of the Jersey Heritage Trust and the Archivist under the Public Records (Jersey) Law 2002

Date of Decision Summary:

30th June 2008

Decision Summary Author:

D Greenwood

Decision Summary:

Public or Exempt?

Public

Type of Report:

Oral or Written?

Written

Person Giving

Oral Report:

 

Written Report

Title:

Annual Report on the Work of the Jersey Heritage Trust and the Archivist under the Public Records (Jersey) Law 2002

Date of Written Report:

 

Written Report Author:

Chief Archivist – Linda Romeril

Written Report :

Public or Exempt?

Public

Subject: Annual Report on the Work of the Jersey Heritage Trust and the Archivist under the Public Records (Jersey) Law 2002

Decision(s): The Minister received the Annual Report and determined that it should be presented to the States in accordance with Article 45 of the Public Records (Jersey) Law 2002, as amended.

Reason(s) for Decision: The Public Records (Jersey) Law 2002 (Article 45) requires the Archivist to report to the States on the performance of the functions of the Archivist and the Trust under the law and on any developments in the making, management and keeping of public records in the previous calendar year

Resource Implications: None

Action required: Officers to liaise with Greffier of the States to arrange publication as required in law

Signature: 

Position:

Minister for Education, Sport and Culture

Date Signed: 

Date of Decision: 

Publication of the Annual Report on the Work of the Jersey Heritage Trust and the Archivist under the Public Records (Jersey) Law 2002.

2007 Annual Report on the work of the Jersey Heritage Trust and the Archivist under the Public Records (Jersey) Law 2002.  

Background

The Public Records (Jersey) Law 2002 under article 45, requires the Archivist appointed by the Jersey Heritage Trust to report to the States on the performance of the functions of the Archivist and the Trust under the Law and on any developments in the making, management and keeping of Public Records in the previous calendar year.  

The Law sets out the principal duties of the Trust and the Archivist as follows:  

Trust

  • to receive archival public records
  • to maintain a public records office
  • to employ an Archivist and other staff with appropriate qualifications

Archivist

  • to take Oath under the Law
  • to appraise public records and survey their disposal
  • to manage public records in the custody of the Trust
  • to make public records available for the public to access

 

Archival Public Records

In 2007, 45 new collections from official bodies were transferred to the Jersey Archive under the Law. These collections contained a total of nearly 6,500 individual items ranging from volumes to files, photographs to film, paper to electronic. All new collections have been fully accessioned, assessed by the Archive Conservator and placed in the strongrooms at the Jersey Archive to await cataloguing.

[Please see appendix A for a full list of public records accessioned in 2008.] 

The Jersey Archive currently holds approximately 200,000 public records, 70% are fully catalogued and accessible for members of the public to research. The remaining 30% are waiting to be catalogued before they can be made available to the public under the Law. With current staffing levels this represents a 19.7 year cataloguing backlog, an increase of 1.1 years on the backlog of 2006.  

In 2007, 5,300 items were catalogued by staff and 11,000 new items (both public and private records) were accessioned. These statistics show that with current staff levels our cataloguing backlog will continue to grow on an annual basis.  

Public records currently held at the Jersey Archive are kept in an environmentally controlled secure strongroom which is monitored for temperature and humidity by the Conservator on a daily basis. In 2007 The Conservator spent 500 hours or one third of her time ensuring that all public records arriving at the Archive were cleaned and repackaged to ensure their long-term preservation. The Conservator is also responsible for a programme of active conservation of badly damaged items and in 2007 she repaired 7 items. The Archive currently holds over 300 items in an unusable condition that are in need of active conservation work.  

Each year the Jersey Archive completes a stock take to ensure that public records are located correctly in the strongrooms and that none have been misplaced during the year. In 2007 approximately 50,000 records were checked in stock taking week and found to be in the correct locations.   

Public Access to Records

Under the Law the Trust is required to maintain a public records office and the Archivist to make the public records in her care available for members of the public to access. In 2007 the Jersey Archive was open to the public on 160 days of the year and 3,288 readers made use of the facilities. This is significantly less than half the year.  

Approximately 63% of the population are currently in employment and for those who work full time access to the Archive is limited to 11 late nights in the year when the Archive is open until 7pm. To increase the number of days that the Archive is open to the public and also the access to records for individuals in employment would require increased staff resources.  

The Archive also provides access to public records through its online catalogue and enquiries service. In 2007 staff answered over 1000 written enquiries by letter or e-mail. The catalogue received a total of 71,000 visits with an average visit length of over 30 minutes – a total of 35,500 hours spent looking at the catalogued descriptions of the public records the Archive holds on-line.

Public Services Quality Group

The Jersey Archive is keen to ensure that the views of readers who use the facilities at the Jersey Archive are heard. In November 2007 the Archive took part in the National Archive’s Public Services Quality Group questionnaire of users to Archives. Over a two week period visitors were asked to comment on the staff, facilities and services at the Archive, their cultural and ethnic background and their views on the importance of Archive Services. 98% of individuals classed the visitor facilities and staff at the Archive as ‘very good’ or ‘good’ with 44% of individuals classing the Archive opening hours as ‘poor’ or ‘very poor’. 82% of individuals believed that the single area in which the Archive needed most improvement was the current opening hours.

Closed Records

Under the Public Records Law any information produced by a public body is closed to public access for 30 years unless it has been previously available, e.g. published reports. The Records Advisory Panel, appointed under the Law, has the ability to approve recommendations from the Archivist for longer closure periods on records of a sensitive nature, e.g. Children’s Services or Hospital records.  

In October 2007 the Archivist produced a new policy on closed records and guidelines for staff at the Archive setting out procedures to ensure that information, where possible, is made available to the public and where appropriate, is closed to public access for a specified period of time.  

In November 2007 the Archivist reviewed 125 files that, after closure periods of 30 and 100 years, were due to be opened to public access in 2008. After review and consultation with the public bodies that created the records the Archivist recommended that 120 files be opened to public access on 1 January 2008 and 5 files should be closed for longer periods of time under Part 5, Article (a) of the Public Records Law – Unwarranted invasion of the privacy of an individual. The Records Advisory Panel agreed these recommendations on 10 December 2007. 

Legislative Work

In October 2007 the Archivist sent comments to the Privileges and Procedures Committee concerning the Draft Freedom of Information Law and its impact on the Public Records (Jersey) Law 2002.  

Appraisal of Public Records

In her 2006 annual report under the Law the Archivist highlighted the lack of funding available to the Jersey Heritage Trust to ensure that the Trust and Archivist’s responsibilities to appraise and supervise disposal of public records under the Law were fully met. Additional funding has not been forthcoming in 2007 and therefore work on the appraisal, scheduling and disposal of public records has been largely reactive.  

In 2007 the Archivist met with the Head of Administration at Education Sport and Culture and colleagues from the Education Psychology Service and Information Compliance at Health and Social Services to discuss and agree retention schedules for records produced by Primary and Secondary Schools. Schedules have been agreed and will be taken to ESC’s senior management team to be signed off in 2008.  

Staff at the Archive also met with Public Health to discuss their records filing structure and Children’s Services to discuss retention schedules and file storage. The records  located in the Emergency Planning bunker were surveyed and recommendations for retention sent to the Emergency Planning Officer.     

Staffing

In June 2007 Linda Romeril was appointed as the new Head of Archives and Collections for the Jersey Heritage Trust. On 1 October she officially replaced Sue Groves, the previous Archivist and was sworn in as Archivist at the Royal Court on 5 October 2007. Mrs Romeril has worked as an archivist with the Jersey Heritage Trust since 1997 after qualifying with a Masters Degree in Archive Administration from the University of Wales, Aberystwyth. Mrs Romeril is a Registered Member of the Society of Archivists.  

The Trust currently employs 3 other professional staff at the Jersey Archive, two Archivists and one Conservator and 2 full and 2 part time support staff.

Panel

The Records Advisory Panel met on four occasions in 2007. The current members of Panel were sworn in on 12 December 2003 and are appointed for a period not exceeding 6 years. The current Panel members terms are therefore due to expire in December 2009.  

The Archivist wishes to thank Sue Groves, the members of the Records Advisory Panel and the staff at the Jersey Heritage Trust for their support in 2007. 

Conclusion

The Jersey Heritage Trust continues to care for archival public records which are produced as part of the business of Government and as such form the written and oral cultural heritage of the Island.  

The Archivist and her staff continue to work hard to ensure that these records are accessioned, catalogued, re-packaged, stored in the correct conditions and made available for members of the public to view.  

However, the Archive does suffer from lack of funding to reduce the cataloguing and conservation backlogs (19.7 and 30 years respectively), to increase accessibility to public records through longer opening hours and to ensure that modern records are appraised and that the correct information is kept for future generations.  

2008

In 2008 the Archivist aims to send a questionnaire to all official bodies to assess current progress under the Law. Questionnaires will be followed up by detailed interviews with individuals from each official body to identify programmes of work that need to be put in place to ensure that the functions of the Law are met. This assessment should establish a list of priorities and timescales for future work.  

The first quarter of 2008 has already seen a greater cubic quantity of public records deposited at the Archive than in 2007.  

The Archivist will also investigate and report to Education Sport and Culture on the additional staff requirements needed to start stabilising cataloguing and conservation backlogs, increase archive opening hours and work with modern records.  

Linda Romeril

Head of Archives and Collections

Jersey Heritage

03/03/2008  
 

Appendix A  

Depositor

Accession Number

Accession Description

Customs and Immigration Service

JA/1246

Customs and Immigration Department General Filing, 1950s - 1990s

Education Sport and Culture Department

JA/1306

Education Sport and Culture additional deposit, includes; Constables Accounts, St Marks'/La Pouquelaye Amalgamation, Committee of Inquiry (MFA) and Youth Hostel - 24, St Mark's Road, 1960s - 1990s

Harbours Department

JA/1240

Harbour's Department-additional deposit of tide tables and sketches and plans of development at the Harbour, 1966-1998

Health and Social Services Department

JA/1267

Public Health Department; Medical Officer of Health Reports, 1889 -

Health and Social Services Department

JA/1321

Jersey General Hospital; Accident and Emergency Admission Registers, c 1956-1995, Minor Operation Register, 1987 and GP Admissions, 1995 and 2000-2002

Jersey Airport

JA/1249

Reports from the Jersey Airport relating to two air accidents, the machinery of the States of Jersey and a contract for a new radar, 1963-1999

Jersey Heritage Trust

JA/1226

Jersey Heritage Trust Collection additional deposit of the proposal for the ENVELOP[p]ES Exhibition, 2003

Jersey Heritage Trust

JA/1244

Overseas Trading Company, original orders, employment papers and tomato factory plans and drawings, c.1930s - 1950s

Jersey Heritage Trust

JA/1257

Jersey Heritage Trust additional deposit of the Liberation 60 Project correspondence, filing and images, 2005

Jersey Heritage Trust

JA/1259

Jersey Heritage Trust additional deposit. Copy of Emigrants from Jersey, The Cod and the Gaspé Coast by George F Le Feuvre, c.1970s

Jersey Heritage Trust

JA/1301

Certificate from the RNLI to Reginald J Nicolle, 1949

Jersey Heritage Trust

JA/1334

Jersey Heritage Trust additional deposit, includes; copies of newscuttings and dvds relating to visits to the Trust's sites, c. 2000s

Jersey Heritage Trust

JA/1336

Jersey Heritage Trust additional deposit, includes; press cuttings regarding the Jersey Heritage Trust, comment books from Jersey Heritage Trust sites, limited edition prints of Hamptonne by Wayne Audrain, posters, sound recordings, videos and cds, 1993-2005

Jersey Heritage Trust

JA/1341

Jersey Heritage Trust additional deposit, includes; annual reviews, leaflets, interpretation notes and the proposal for the Maritime Museum, c 1982-2004

Jersey Heritage Trust

JA/1342

Jersey Heritage Trust additional deposit, includes; transparencies and photographs of Jersey buildings originally taken by Robin Briault, c 20th-21st century

Jersey Library

JA/1287

Statement signed by Baron de Rullecourt concerning the desertion of three men from the Corps of the Volunteers of Luxembourg of which he is the commanding officer, 16/10/1780

Jersey Library

JA/1346

Miscellaneous Papers from the estate of the late Ian Monins, includes; permits from the Occupation, programmes of events, papers from schools, invitations, tickets, correspondence, posters and calendars, c. 1911-1990s

Jersey Meteorological Department

JA/1269

Jersey Weather and Climatological Report, 2003

Jersey Telecom

JA/1290

Jersey Telephone Directories, 2004 - 2007

Jersey Tourism

JA/1329

Jersey Tourism additional deposit, includes; scrapbooks, newscuttings, brochures, publicity photographs, videos and sound, c. 1960s-2000s

Jersey Tourism

JA/1337

Jersey Tourism additional deposit, includes; posters, videos, photographs and a file regarding Jersey Royals, c. 1990-2004

Judicial Greffe

JA/1222

Judicial Greffe additional deposit, includes; Family Division - Matrimonial Causes files [Numbers: 551-600, 700-799, 950-1099, 1200-1212, 1214-1216, 1218-1526, 1528-1549] and registers, Orders in Council, Proclamations, Centeniers Reports, German Orders, Cause Civiles and Petty Debts Registers c.1880 - 1980

Judicial Greffe

JA/1238

Judicial Greffe additional deposit, includes; Family Division - Matrimonial Causes files [Numbers: 800 - 949, 1100 - 1199, 1550 - 1599, 1776 - 1830], 1960s - 1970s

Judicial Greffe

JA/1251

Judicial Greffe additional deposit, includes; Family Division - Matrimonial Causes files [Numbers: 1600 - 1710, 1740 - 1775, 1831 - 2510], Trademark Files, Degrevement and Jury List, 1936 - 2005

Judicial Greffe

JA/1288

Judicial Greffe additional deposit, includes; Family Division - Matrimonial Causes files [Numbers: 1702 - 4085 not inclusive], 1974 - 1984

Judicial Greffe

JA/1307

Judicial Greffe additional deposit, includes; Family Division - Matrimonial Causes files, 1984 - 1989

Judicial Greffe

JA/1310

Judicial Greffe additional deposit, includes; summing-ups, privy council appeals, remise papers, deeds of arrangement, presumptions of death, papers regarding the computerisation of the Public Registry and lists of Acts of Parliament, c. 1932-1988

Judicial Greffe

JA/1318

Draft Royal Court Registers, c 1965-1972 and Notes D'Audience with the Bailiff, Deputy Bailiff and C J Le Quesne, c 1950-1964

Judicial Greffe

JA/1319

Judicial Greffe additional deposit, includes; Fideicommis Records, c 1890-2006 and Royal Court Journals c 1990-1995

Judicial Greffe

JA/1328

Judicial Greffe additional deposit of Matrimonial Causes files, 1988-1992

Judicial Greffe

JA/1347

Criminal Prosecutions and Appeals Index, 1979-1981

Law Officers' Department

JA/1297

Law Officers' Department additional deposit; licences granted under the Licence (Jersey) Law, 1974, 1974 - 1999

Office of the Lieutenant Governor

JA/1272

Lieutenant Governor's Archive additional deposit of photographs of past Lieutenant Governors, 1868 - 2006

Office of the Lieutenant Governor

JA/1343

Lieutenant Governor Archive additional deposit, includes; papers of the Receiver General, c. 1950-2004, naturalisation papers, c. 1946-1997 and papers relating to Royal celebrations, c. 1980s

Parish of St Helier Registrar

JA/1352

Registers recording deaths in the Parish of St Helier, 1850-1968 and samples of birth, marriage and death registration documentation, 1986-2005

Parish of St Saviour

JA/1295

St Saviour's Parish Archive additional deposit, includes driving licence lists, port d'armes, accounts, correspondence, welfare papers and photographs of Parish events and Lillie Langtry, c.1870 - 2001

Planning and Environment

JA/1230

Outsize ½ tone positive enlargements of aerial photographs taken by the Ordnance Survey of Jersey, c.1970s - 1980s - this is not a complete set of the whole Island

Planning and Environment

JA/1320

Planning and Environment additional deposit, includes; photographs of Kensington Place, c 1968

Property Holdings

JA/1345

Files relating to bunkers, forts, towers and magazines and the Land Office Section, c. 1959-1984

St John's Parish

JA/1245

St John's Parish Records additional deposit, includes Parish Assembly Minutes, Rates and Electoral Lists, 1675 - 1974

St Luke's School

JA/1283

Admission Registers from St Luke's School, 1884 - 1963, St Mary and St Peter's School, 1879 - 1936, St James' School, 1949 - 1983 and St Luke's School Newsletters, 1990s - 2000s.

States Greffe

JA/1348

Minutes of the States of Jersey, 1999-2006

States of Jersey Fire and Rescue Service

JA/1274

States of Jersey Fire and Rescue Service Records. Minute books giving a daily record of the Fire Service's activities, 2002 - 2003

States of Jersey Treasury

JA/1299

States of Jersey Treasury Financial Report and Accounts, 2006

Viscount's Department

JA/1278

Viscount's Department; inquest verdicts, 1887 - 1945

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