National Archives of Iceland
Recommendation to stop printouts of data originating in electronic form
25th November 2024
The National Archives has issued a recommendation to the parties that are required to deliver documents to stop printing on paper on the data that originate in electronic form. The reason for this is changes made to Article 15 of the Act on Public Archives No. 77/2014 last summer, which addresses the delivery of documents and the right to information.
The provisions were amended in such a way that the obligation to submit documents to a public archives in the form in which the documents were created should be sought unless the director of a public archives decides otherwise and such a decision is justified.
The main purpose of the changes is that the legislation clearly reflects the principle that data should be returned to a public archive in the form in which they were created. In modern administrations, the vast majority of data will be available in electronic form and the principle is therefore in effect the principle of electronic return of data to public archive.
See the letter of recommendation for further information here.