Section 2 — Guidance for agencies seeking to implement a declassification programme
Meeting Policy Requirements
This section provides some practical advice for agencies who may wish to establish a declassification programme for its classified archives. It includes some practical tips from New Zealand agencies (and international partners) about how to run a successful declassification programme. A templated declassification policy has also been produced which agencies can adapt to suit their own needs.
Policy statement
Mandated agencies are required to have an organisational policy and procedures for declassification of classified archival information. This need not exist as a standalone policy and declassification requirements may be easier to include within existing information management policies.
Relevant policies should include:
- A high-level commitment to declassification
- Reference to any legislation that needs to be considered
- Any principles or values underpinning the policy
- High level declassification criteria, i.e., about what sort of information the agency believes should be prioritised for declassification
- Requirements for implementation, e.g., on review periods for different types of information
- Performance indicators, e.g., on what activity the agency expects to undertake each year
- Responsibilities for declassification are clearly defined.
- Provision for the policy to be reviewed.
Understanding information holdings and assessing the potential value of proactive declassification
Agencies need to understand what classified information they hold, assess its value, and then decide what information should be considered for declassification.
As noted, much of an agency’s classified holdings will not be suitable for release:
- Either, it is of no obvious utility or interest to the public
- Or, because it is personal information that should not be released (such as court records)
The volume of classified information that could be publicly released will likely far exceed the capacity to assess and declassify it. Agencies prioritise where to focus based on a range of factors, including the level of public interest and the feasibility of declassifying different subjects.
Declassification policy
The New Zealand Security Classification System Policy states, ‘Agency heads must establish an organisational declassification policy and procedures in line with the Classification System’.
This does not mean that agencies must have a separate policy for declassification, only that policy exists that addresses declassification.
Agencies can choose whether to have a stand-alone policy for declassification or to incorporate this content into existing policies, e.g., their Information Management policy.
Some agencies have asked for guidance on how to develop a declassification policy. The Declassification Policy Template [DOCX, 35 KB] is provided primarily as a starting point for agencies considering establishing their own declassification policy and need guidance.
The template is not prescriptive, and agencies should apply their own judgement about whether the content is useful to them or whether declassification requirements are already addressed in other policies.
What topics should be addressed?
Agencies can take several approaches to identify themes suitable for declassification, including:
- Analysing Official Information Act requests to identify themes of most interest
- Engaging with the public, such as through the historical and academic community to determine areas of most interest
- Selecting topics of greatest value or scarcity, e.g., Pacific Island records
Declassification governance
Governance arrangements should be proportionate to the size of the declassification programme.
Effective declassification involves responsibilities at several layers, from deciding what topics should be addressed to approving the release of information. Who fills those roles must be contextualised for each agency.
Establishing a declassification programme
This section provides some practical tips on how agencies might go about delivering a declassification programme. The tips are based on New Zealand experience and that of overseas partners.
Declassification needs people with experience and expertise
Declassification decisions are often complex, nuanced and require significant knowledge of an organisation’s history. While at one level the task is administrative, declassification decisions rely on expert judgement and substantial organisational experience.
Declassification needs a team
Given the level of professional judgement involved, it is unrealistic to expect individuals to draw identical conclusions to each other. Ideally, people should work within a team so that discussions can be discussed collectively and made more consistently.
Advice on where to start
To begin with, historical declassification should be targeted against areas of wider utility or interest to the public. Historical declassification is time-consuming and would be largely a waste of effort if applied to topics of limited interest.
After having identified topics of public interest, agencies will probably still have a much larger volume of information than they have the resources to declassify.
Agencies should therefore include pragmatic considerations about what to declassify. For example, agencies will also find it easier to begin with declassifying older, non-electronic records as relevant artefacts are usually already archived and easier to find.
Corporate services need confidence in the declassification process
Various functions in an agency may have an interest in declassification, including legal, risk management, compliance, audit, and others.
It is recommended that relevant corporate functions are involved in the development of declassification policy and procedures. Their input on individual records should be by exception and policy should give guidance to where this might be required. For example, the advice of the legal team may be required if items in a record relate to a matter that was subject to a legal process, but one would not expect the legal team (or other corporate services) to review every document.
How often should agencies declassify?
While the choice of when to proactively declassify records is up to the agency, it is preferable to release regularly, i.e., a few times during each year. The reason for this is that some agencies report that if records are only rarely declassified, then people tend to forget (and have to relearn) how decisions were made previously.
Where declassification occurs more frequently, organisational memory of the process is usually retained, and subsequent rounds of declassification can become more efficient. This is greatly assisted if the reasons for any key decisions are recorded when files are being declassified.
Who should run a declassification programme?
Declassification programmes could be run from several parts of an organisation. However, the process most naturally fits within the responsibilities of a knowledge or information management team.
Do I need to involve other agencies?
Agency experience to date has been that topics for declassification tend to be either specific to agencies or of different importance to different agencies. For these reasons, joint-agency declassification programmes (while compelling in theory) are unlikely to be feasible.
However, agencies should engage with other agencies if a proposed topic for declassification is likely to have a high impact on them, e.g., result in a large number of OIA requests for another agency, or if they have other reasons for the information to remain classified.
How do I report on the value of the declassification programme?
Mandated agencies will provide some information about their declassification programmes through the PSR self-assessment and reporting process. However, this information is not publicly available. It is recommended that the easiest way to report publicly against declassification activities is to include a short description in the agency’s Annual Report.