Normal Administrative Practice
Normal Administrative Practice (NAP) refers to the principle that certain records do not need to be captured into official recordkeeping systems and may be destroyed without formal authorisation.
NAP applies to all information and data formats and balances efficiency with responsible information management. It complements, but does not replace, the Monash University Retention and Disposal Authority (RDA), by allowing individuals and organisational units to identify and manage their own low risk records. Under NAP, low-value, short term records created, acquired or collected during the course of normal business activities can be deleted without formal authorisation.
NAP is an important tool in the efficient and accountable management of information and should be applied regularly as part of normal working practices. A clear, well supported and widely distributed NAP procedure reduces the risk of inappropriate destruction as well as ensuring non-essential information is not over retained, particularly important when information is highly sensitive and sensitive. A consistently applied NAP also contributes to strong information governance and efficient work practice by prioritising the retention of critical information while disposing of non-essential material.
All staff should be familiar with and understand NAP to ensure that it can be applied correctly in their day-to-day work.
Before implementing NAP, it is crucial that staff understand which records are automatically excluded due to existing legislative and regulatory requirements. These records will be covered under the RDA
- those which add value to an existing record and/or are needed to clarify, support, or provide context to an existing record
- Draft agreements containing legal advice which form part of contract negotiations
- Information that is needed to show how a decision was made
- Any formal draft of a policy, cabinet submission, agreement or legal document
- Records required to protect rights and entitlements of individuals, groups, or the Government
- Records and information that may be of cultural or historical value to the University and/or the wider community
Additionally, the following records MUST NOT be destroyed:
- They may be needed in a current or future legal proceeding. This includes any civil or criminal proceeding or inquiry where evidence may be given before a court or person acting judicially such as a Royal Commission or Board of Inquiry
- They are required for meeting any Freedom of Information (FOI) applications which are not finalised
- They are required for an audit or investigation which is not yet finalised; and/or
- They are subject to a disposal freeze applied by the government or the organisation.
Facilitative records described below are pre-authorised for destruction by the Public Record Office of Victoria PROV (PROS 22/04 Disposal Standard) under Normal Administrative Practice (NAP) principles:
- working documents, such as notes or rough calculations used to assist in the preparation of other records (e.g. reports and statistical tabulations)
- working papers or background notes used to develop drafts
- spreadsheets or word processing documents that have been incorporated into correspondence or a separate final document
- minor drafts and transitory documents, where the content is reproduced elsewhere and the information will not be needed to show how the work has progressed or actions approved
- draft and transitory documents that do not contain significant or substantial changes or annotations
- draft and transitory documents that are not required to document business activities.
- minor updates of content, such as those in databases, which will not be needed to show actions, decisions or approvals
- communications for the purpose of making minor arrangements
- duplicate copies of information that already exists in a University enterprise system eg: information download from, or uploaded to, Callista or Sap
- Emails, which may be located in either a personal mailbox or a University role account, that have been saved to and/or processed in a University enterprise system.
- duplicates of publications and promotional material
- periodic backups of records, information, data, software and settings for recovery in case of technical failure and/or catastrophe and are duplicate copies of official business records/data that is held elsewhere on a managed system.
The following questions will assist staff in identifying when NAP can be applied.
- Does the record provide evidence of a business decision?
- Does it show how a transaction occurred?
- Does it show how a decision was made?
- Does it relate to an assessment or investigation?
- Is the record required to support legal proceedings?
- Does the record demonstrate when or where an event happened?
- Does it indicate who was involved or what advice was provided?
- Is the record a formal draft of a submission, agreement or legal document?
If you answer YES to any of these, the records do not fall under NAP and must not be destroyed
Normal Administrative Practice process
The following diagram outlines the process for Normal Administrative Practice.
