A True Copy?
Properly categorising information and documents can improve authenticity and evidential weight. It is also important to demonstrate that procedures are robust and properly managed. As documents go through their lifecycle a number of operations will be performed on them or decisions taken based on their content. It is crucial that this is reflected in an audit trail as it shows the document as part of an overall and dynamic process. Metadata, or the data that describes the documents, is also relevant and should be managed with the same diligence.
The duty of care has been reinforced further with the Data Protection and Freedom of Information Acts where legal obligations now exist. One can only be confident that responsibilities are being fulfilled by undertaking a proper risk analysis that ensures all reasonable eventualities are considered. With current technology allowing documents to be stored electronically and to be backed up easily, keeping documents on paper alone is insufficient. Fire, flood, theft or malicious damage may be rare events but are real nonetheless and risk analysis should cover these possibilities.