Public Records Bill - Royal Assent

The Public Records (Scotland) Bill, discussed previously across a few posts on this blog in recent months, received Royal Assent on April 20th. The first major legislation in 70 years on public records, it has not yet actually come into effect, as it has to wait for a Commencement Order, likely to take effect from late 2011.

The National Records of Scotland has an update on the bill's proceedings at http://www.nas.gov.uk/recordKeeping/publicRecordsBillNews.asp, but as well as getting the background to the legislation it is also worth spending a bit of time on some of the ceremony surrounding the sealing of the bill by the Great Seal. 800 years of tradition, and beeswax still has a useful function - all very interesting!

Chris