Public access to legislative drafting files

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore the implications of setting access restrictions to legislative drafting records – specifically in New Zealand.

Design/methodology/approach

Various international archival institutions and other offices which create legislative drafting records were contacted to see what access restrictions were placed on any legislative drafting files that they held. The information provided by these institutions, together with written theoretical information regarding public access and legal professional privilege, was the basis for the research.

Findings

There is no standard approach to allowing public access to legislative drafting records across the institutions researched. The level of accessibility varies, as does the period of restriction. In New Zealand legislative drafting records are considered to be protected by legal professional privilege and therefore are restricted unless the privilege is waived.

Research limitations/implications

The main form of communication used to contact the various institutions was e‐mail. A large number of institutions and offices from which information was requested did not reply, and some that did reply did not provide answers specific to legislative drafting records. The research is therefore limited to the information that was received.

Originality/value

There is very little published information available regarding legislative drafting records and public access to them. These records are unique due to debate over whether or not they are, or should be, covered by legal professional privilege. Because of the unique nature of these records, there is no common or widely available precedent to follow when applying access restrictions to them.

Citation

Tomlinson, S. (2011), "Public access to legislative drafting files", Records Management Journal, Vol. 21 No. 1, pp. 28-35. https://doi.org/10.1108/09565691111125080