National Records of Scotland Strategy 2025/26-2030/31

The National Records of Scotland (www.nrscotland.gov.uk) has released its National Records of Scotland Strategy 2025/26-2030/31, an eighteen page document detailing some changes it hopes to put in place over the next five years. Being a government document it has a lot of really dull corporate back-slapping speak within it, but amongst all of that are some details that may be of interest to users of its archive and digital services. The following are some of these, with occasional comments from me:

On recent performance (p.6):

• Our Scotland’s People service has a global reach of 1.3 million customers, helping people access information and records.
• In 2024-25 we hosted nearly 5000 visits to our historical search room with over 15,000 physical items produced.

Why are we changing? (p.9)

• Our archive services require significant transformation to operate in the digital age and to once again accept paper records from Scotland’s public bodies.
• Customer feedback shows a desire for improved in-person experiences in our buildings. We want to make our services more inclusive, increase accessibility to our records, expand our reach, engage with new audiences and maximise opportunities for income generation.

(Interesting wording - did they stop taking paper records from Scottish public bodies?)

 

Strategic Objectives (p.10)

• Meet the future needs of the national archive by investing in digital preservation and securing long-term storage capacity.
• General Register House to become a destination space for customers that connects people to Scotland’s rich past and present through our archives, records and statistics.
• Representing all of Scotland’s people by ensuring our information, services and collections, and those of the wider Scottish record keeping community, are inclusive.

What will these changes mean? (p.11): 

There are a few points raised here, this is the key one:

• Customers can access a complete national archive available in-person and, increasingly, online.

The biggest problem for researchers is off-site storage. The continued usage of General Register House's Historic Search Room as the archive access point is ridiculously problematic, with limits on what can be consulted in a day, and with what is available on-site in the first place. Online access is great, but absolutely no substitute for the records that will never be digitised.
 

Our services uphold democratic rights and enable people to participate in society (p.14)

On this page is the following interesting entry:

• NHS Central Register service transition
• Efficiencies in the delivery of the NHSCR service through digital system improvements

The NHS Central Register is essentially the information used for requests from the 1939 National Identify Register for Scotland, which is the most expensive version of this resource to access in the UK (it's free in NI, and the English and Welsh returns are available on various subscription data sites). If efficiencies are to be delivered, will the £15 search fee per each record be reduced? Why not digitise the 1939 register as a 1941 census substitute, for delivery in 2041? (This could be done at the same time as the 1931 census to save money.)

And then on p.17:
To keep delivering our services, we need to be financially sustainable and make the best use of public resources. We have a responsibility to look after our historic and archival buildings. With rising costs, we also need to do our part to protect the environment. That means we must work in new and better ways. 

The responsibility to look after historic buildings is a millstone around the NRS's neck. New Register House may be pretty to look at, but most people go there to look at records, not bricks and plaster. Edinburgh and Scotland needs a modern national archive facility, as currently enjoyed in London (Kew) and Belfast by the UK's other national archives. 

The full report is freely accessible at https://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/media/qjbnvpbu/national-records-of-scotland-strategy-2025-26-2030-31.pdf

Chris 

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