GA-51 - Original or source records that have been copied
This general retention and disposal authority provides for the authorised destruction of original or source records that have been copied
Issued: 9 October 2025 by State Records NSW
Key information
- Status
- Active
- Type
- State Records Authority NSW General Retention & Disposal Authority
- Identifier
- GA-51
- Compliance
- Mandatory
Who needs to know and/or comply with this?
- Advisory Entities (including Boards and Committees)
- Councils under the Local Government Act
- Departments
- Executive agencies related to Departments
- General Government Sector
- Public Financial Corporation
- Public Non-financial Corporation
- Separate agencies
- State Owned Corporations
- Statutory Authorities/Bodies
- Subsidiaries of the NSW Government established under the Corporations Act
- Universities
- ‘GSF Agencies’ as defined under the Government Sector Finance Act 2018
About
The purpose of this authority is to provide approval under the State Records Act 1998 for the destruction of original or source records after they have been successfully copied. This includes the conversion of paper, film and other physical formats into digital formats.
This Authority establishes the:
- conditions that must be met before destruction can take place, and
- identifies records that are excluded from this approval.
This Authority does not apply to:
- private records held by NSW public offices including collection items held by cultural institutions
- items from the State Archives Collection that are on loan. State archives that have been retrieved or are on loan from Museums of History NSW or its regional archives centres must be returned to Museums of History NSW or the relevant regional archives centres.
- the destruction of digital source records that have been used as the input or source records for migration. Disposal coverage for these records is provided by the General retention and disposal authority for source records that have been migrated (GA48).
GA-51 supersedes GA-45 Original or source records that have been copied which can no longer be used to authorise the disposal of records after copying.
GA-51 is available from https://www.nsw.gov.au/nsw-government/recordkeeping/records-retention-and-disposal-authorities/original-or-source-records-have-been-copied-ga51