Policies Summarised

Policy title and key statement

Ownership

Data collected by or for a government agency under statutory provisions, or by contract, or through an information-matching agreement under the Privacy Act, is owned by the Crown, not the individual agency. Other data may be supplied for use by agreement with an external owner. Business documents created or collected by or for a government agency are owned by the Crown.

Stewardship

The Crown through a responsible minister will appoint a Crown Data Steward with a government-wide mandate to manage and develop the Crown's data and document assets in accordance with established policies and standards.

Custodianship

Every item of data and every business document held by, or maintained for a government agency on behalf of the Crown, will have a Business Custodian and a Physical Custodian.

The role of Business Custodian is assumed by the agency's Chief Executive, who may delegate day-to-day responsibility to an appropriate employee. The role of Physical Custodian will be assigned to the service provider holding the data under an explicit directive or agreement.

Treaty of Waitangi Obligations and Cultural Awareness

Each agency will recognise and meet Treaty of Waitangi obligations and, where Maori are affected, consult with Maori in all issues relating to access, capture, usage, storage, transfer and retention of data and business documents. Each agency will also attempt to accommodate identified cultural, ethnic and religious issues related to data and document management, where they do not conflict with statutory and explicit business requirements.

Charging/Cost Recovery

Agencies may need to recover costs in some cases where information is disseminated from government data or document stores.

Agencies must apply the PFGHI (Policy for Government Held Information) pricing principle where information is disseminated from government data or document stores.

Agencies should refer to Cabinet Committee Minute CGA(97)M10/1, 16 July 1997, "Government Information Supply Activities" to determine an appropriate charging regime for the service.

The Ministry of Justice Charging Services Guidelines will set the actual price for the service, to ensure consistent pricing across Government.

Charges relating to an information privacy request where an individual requests access to, or correction of personal information, are governed by the Privacy Act.

Agencies will work in consultation with Treasury when establishing charging or cost recovery schemes.

Access Rules

The Business Custodian will establish and maintain access rules for the categories of data and business documents under his/her control. Access rules must be based on the principle of public and equitable access to information unless explicit reasons preclude this.

Data Identification

Government agencies will identify data elements for which they hold custodial responsibility by defining and maintaining their metadata in a data catalogue.

Document Identification and Capture

Agencies will create and implement policies and standards to identify and capture all business documents created or received in their processes.

Context

Contextual information about logical business data stores or complex datasets will be captured and stored in the agency's data catalogue.

Contextual information about business documents will be captured and associated with the documents and managed according to organisational policies and standards.

Source

Agencies will be able to identify and locate the prime authoritative source of their data elements and business documents. Where it is cost effective, prime authoritative sources should be held electronically.

Authenticity Integrity and Retrievability

Data and business documents will be managed to preserve and demonstrate their authenticity, integrity, and retrievability to meet business and statutory requirements.

Auditability

Data elements and business documents must be defined in a consistent manner and stored in a consistent format across all stores and, where required by the Business Custodian, changes to form or content must be recorded in an audit trail.

Interchange, Replication and Interfaces

Within legislative provisions and access protocols, information may be interchanged between agencies. The preferred method is via a defined electronic system interface to the appropriate data or document stores.

Retention

Data and business documents will be managed within a defined retention process.

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