The Campaign for Records -
Democracy and Rights in the Digital Age
The Campaign for Records highlights the need for better records management in public life and calls for more resources, better regulation and improved freedom of information and access to public records.
Without a robust framework for the collection and preservation of records, the age of dis and mis-information will continue. Accusations of ‘fake-news’, conspiracies and cover-ups will abound and trust in government and democracy will be further undermined. Even in the 2020 Trust in Government survey carried out by the OECD the UK came 34th out of 41 countries – in the bottom ten just below Brazil and Colombia. Fundamentally there needs to be proper investment into the recordkeeping sector and its work. Over time, we also advocate that a new, comprehensive legislative framework will be needed to ensure that digital records across the public sector (and its partners and contractors) will provide the essential records and evidence that the public need to rebuild and maintain trust in government and diminish the threat to representative democracy. Much of the existing mishmash of legislation governing the collection, preservation and retention of records was framed more than 60 years ago and does not cover digital records.
Through guest blogs on our website we will highlight and explore issues relevant to this campaign.
Through this further investigation we will develop recommendations which we will put to the relevant Government departments for consideration.
CAMPAIGN FOR RECORDS BLOG
We invite blog posts and articles from a range of interested people and organisations - if you would like to write a blog or article for the campaign please get in touch here.
Law firm Mishcon de Reya send an open letter to the Government over concerns that The Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill which was introduced to Parliament on 22 September 2022, will have a negative impact on the protection of and respect for information rights.
September 2022 - Read more here
Author and historian Andrew Lownie had to take the government to court to get access to archives that were bought with public money.
From The House magazine July 2022 - Read more here
Commons public accounts committee issues damning report into £777m spent with firm that employed Owen Paterson as lobbyist. Better record keeping identified as a key issue.
From the Guardian July 2022 - Read more here
Office of National Statistics Trust in Government survey 2022
35% of the UK population stated that they trusted the national government, which is lower than the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) average (41%).
Published July 2022 - Read more here
DWP blocks data for study of whether benefit sanctions linked to suicide -Department accused of culture of secrecy as research into policy’s health effects on claimants halted
From the Guardian March 2022 - Read more here