BS 10025:2021

This British Standard sets out recommended good practice for an organization to follow in the management of its records.

In the course of operations and activities, people and IT systems in an organization produce and accumulate what might be called data, documents, information, documented information or records, or a combination of all these, and other, related terms. For the purposes of this British Standard, all such organizational outputs produced and accumulated in the course of operations and activities are records – regardless of the terms that are used for them, their medium or format, the type of technology or system on which they are created and captured, when they are created, why they are captured and maintained, or their value to people or to an organization.

People and organizations might set out with an intention to produce and accumulate some records (for example, a minute of a meeting or financial accounts) but also produce drafts, working notes and similar material as part of conducting operations and activities. Some of what an organization produces and accumulates it might only label as records at the point that they are added to an IT system, such as an electronic document and records management system, or other form of content management system. Some organizations might separate out what is produced and accumulated in some media and formats – for example, e‑mail, texts and other electronic communications – and manage them separately. For the purposes of this British Standard, all these outputs – at whatever point they first appear – are records.

NOTE The description of records used in this British Standard might be seen by some to be a broader use of the term than that defined in BS ISO 15489‑1, potentially extending its usage to include aspects from other fields; for example, information management, information asset management or information governance.

An individual record is a snapshot of an act at a position fixed in time, how things were at some moment in the past. It is a persistent representation of an occurrence, it provides a trace or evidence of an action or decision – in short, a record shows who did what, when.

This British Standard applies to digital, electronic and physical records irrespective of the media or formats used to create, capture, process or store them or the type of information they contain. It includes the management of records on IT systems (for example, databases, electronic document and records management systems, content management systems, CCTV and voice recording systems, business and information systems, websites and social media platforms) as well as physical records.

This British Standard is intended to be applicable to all organizations regardless of the type, size and nature of its activities. The degree of detail and complexity in tools, processes and records that an organization develops and maintains to meet the recommendations varies, depending on the organization’s operating environment, size and complexity.

This British Standard is intended for use by those responsible for managing an organization’s records. Workers in related areas who have been asked to take the lead operational role in the management of records but who might not be familiar with principles and good practice for the management of records might find it a useful foundation. This standard can also provide those tasked with supporting specific areas of the management of records (for example, those developing IT systems being used to capture, process and store records) with an understanding of the wider framework.

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