What is Act No. 499 / 2004 Coll.?

Act No. 499 / 2004 Coll., on archiving and file services and on the amendment of certain laws — Act on archiving and writing services and on the amendment of certain laws.

When it became Act No. 499 / 2004 Coll. effectiveness?

Act No. 499 / 2004 Coll. became effective 01.01.2005.

Is Act No. 499 / 2004 Coll. still valid?

Yes, Act No. 499 / 2004 Coll. is still valid and effective.

How many times was it Act No. 499 / 2004 Coll. amended?

Act No. 499 / 2004 Coll. has 24 time versions of the text.

Act No. 499 / 2004 Coll. - Act on archiving and writing services an...

499

THE LAW

of 30 June 2004

on archiving and writing services and on amending certain laws

Parliament has decided on this law of the Czech Republic:

ČÁST PRVNÍ

ARCHIVICITY AND SPISIS SERVICES

HLAVA I

INTRODUCTORY PROVISIONS

§ 1

Subject matter

This law governs

(a) the selection and registration of archives;

(b) the protection of archives;

(c) the rights and obligations of archival owners;

(d) the rights and obligations of archival holders and administrators, hereinafter referred to as "the holder of the archive,"

(e) the use of archives;

(f) processing of personal data for archiving purposes;

(g) archive system,

(h) the rights and obligations of archive founders;

(i) file service,

(j) the competence of the Ministry of the Interior (hereinafter referred to as the Ministry) and other administrative offices in the archiving and file service sector;

(k) offences.

§ 2

Definition of terms

For the purposes of this Act:

(a) archiving the field of human activity focused on the care of archives as part of national cultural heritage and fulfilling the functions of administrative, information, scientific and cultural;

(b) care for archives of their selection, registration, protection, archival processing, storage and accessibility;

(c) the archive of the equipment under this Act, which is used for the storage and care of archives;

(d) the originator of each of the activities of the document; a document resulting from the activity of the originator shall also be deemed to have been delivered or otherwise transmitted to the originator;

(e) by document, any written, image, audio or other recorded information, whether in analogue or digital form, created by the originator or delivered by the originator;

(f) archival material such a document which has been selected in the public interest for permanent preservation, given the time of its creation, content, origin, external characteristics and the lasting value of the political, economic, legal, historical, cultural, scientific or information significance, and which has been entered into archival records; the archives are also seals, stamps and other tangible objects related to the archive fund or to the archive collection, which have been selected and entered in the register, given the time of creation, content, origin, external characteristics and the lasting value of the political, economic, legal, historical, cultural, scientific or information importance,

(g) by selecting archives to assess the value of documents and decide on their collection for archival purposes and to include them in archival records;

h) archival fund file of archives, which was created by the selection of documents created from the originator's activity;

(i) by archive collection, a file of archives linked to each other by one or more common characters;

(j) an archival information system which is developed during archival processing and serves for recording and orientation in the content and time range of the archive fund, archive collection or parts thereof;

(k) archival processing of sorting, organisation and description of archives;

(l) the performance of a file service to ensure the professional management of documents arising from the activities of the originator or, where appropriate, from the activity of his legal predecessors, including their proper income, registration, distribution, circulation, processing, production, signature, dispatch, storage and disposal in the shredder's proceedings, including the control of such activities;

(m) a file space intended for the storage, searching and submission of documents for the originator's needs and for the implementation of the shredding procedure;

(n) an administrative archive part of the originator intended to supervise the author's file service and to deposit, search and submit documents with a shredding period of more than 5 years;

(o) metadata of data describing the context, content and structure of documents and their management over time;

(p) an internal rule laying down the basic rules for document handling and shredding procedures,

(q) the file character of the marking which classifies documents in material groups for the purposes of their future search, storage and disposal;

(r) by means of a shredder symbol of the document by which the document is assessed in the shredding procedure;

(s) the shredding period during which the document must be deposited with the originator;

(t) an employee of a person in a service relationship, employment relationship or other similar relationship;

(u) testing the electronic file service system to assess the compliance of the electronic file service system with the requirements of this Act, the Decree pursuant to Paragraph 70 (1) and the national standard for electronic file service systems (hereinafter referred to as "national standard").

HLAVA II

ARCHIVICITY

Díl 1

Selection and registration of archives

Archive Selection

§ 3

(1) The obligation to keep documents and to allow the selection of archives should:

(a) the organisational elements of the State;

(b) armed forces;

(c) the Security Corps,

(d) State contribution organisations;

(e) State enterprises;

(f) local authorities;

(g) the organisational elements of the territorial units, where they produce the documents listed in Annexes 1 or 2 to this Act;

(h) legal persons established or constituted by local authorities, where they produce the documents listed in Annexes 1 or 2 to this Act;

(i) universities;

(j) schools and school establishments with the exception of nursery schools, educational and accommodation establishments and school catering facilities (hereinafter referred to as "schools");

(k) health insurance companies;

(l) public research institutions;

(m) legal persons established by law;

(n) public cultural institutions;

(hereinafter referred to as "the public authorities').

(2) The obligation to keep documents and to allow the selection of archives under the conditions laid down by this law also has to be

(a) commercial companies and cooperatives, with the exception of housing cooperatives, as regards the documents listed in Annex 1 to this Act;

(b) political parties, political movements, associations, trade unions, employers' organisations, churches and religious societies, professional chambers, foundations, foundations, foundations and public utility companies, Czech Press Office,

(c) notaries, as regards the documents listed in Annex 1 thereto,

("the private-law agents').

(3) Furthermore, the obligation to keep documents and to allow the choice of archives shall be the legal successors of the public and private authors, if it is the documents on which those agents have already had that obligation.

(4) The obligation to retain documents and to allow the choice of archives shall also lie with the entrepreneurs who have been granted a state licence to conduct the business of the management of the Registry (hereinafter referred to as the "concession for the management of the Registry '), in the case of documents for which the public agents, private agents or their successors are required to do so and which have been transmitted to those entrepreneurs for professional management.

(5) In the case of digital documents, their retention shall also mean ensuring the reliability of the origin of the documents, the integrity of their content and legibility, the creation and management of metadata belonging to them in accordance with this Act and the connection of data demonstrating the existence of the document over time. These properties must be preserved until the archival selection is completed.

(6) The archive shall be selected in accordance with its competence (the archive concerned).

(7) The obligation to keep documents and to allow the choice of archives for health service providers who are public or private agents shall, in the case of health documentation, be laid down by other legislation governing the management and storage of health documents39).

§ 3a

(1) The management of an information system which is not an electronic file service system used by the public authority ensures that the information system allows the storage of information in accordance with Article 3 (5). In the case of information for which permanent shredding consent has not been issued pursuant to Article 15 (4), the information system administrator shall ensure, according to the first sentence, that the system allows the selection of archival sites outside the shredding process. The information system referred to in the first sentence shall not be subject to the requirements laid down in this Act for electronic file service systems.

(2) The procedures, output data formats and the scope and form of metadata for the selection of archives referred to in paragraph 1 shall be established by the National Archive and published on its website.

§ 4

The criteria for selecting archives are the permanent value of the document due to:

(a) the time of origin;

(b) content,

(c) origin,

(d) external features.

§ 5

(1) According to the time of origin, the respective archive for archival shall be selected:

(a) documents up to 1850;

(b) documents relating to industrial and agricultural production, credit system and insurance, financial and mining business, including patents on major inventions made up to 1900;

(c) photographic records made up to 1900;

(d) audio recordings made up to 1930;

(e) film records made up to 1930.

(2) According to the content, documents of a lasting value given to their political, economic, legal, historical, cultural, scientific or information significance shall be selected for archival by the archive concerned; the documents listed in Annex 2 to this Act must always be submitted for selection.

(3) According to origin, documents which have a permanent value due to the importance, function or position of their originator shall be selected as archives by the appropriate archive.

(4) According to external features, documents of lasting value are selected for archival purposes in relation to their artistic value, language, font, writing material, method of production, or other similar characteristics.

§ 6

Selection of archives from the originators' documents shall be carried out by the respective archive in the shredder's or outside the shredder's proceedings.

Selection of archives in shredder control

§ 7

(1) The selection of archives in the shredder's proceedings is carried out by the relevant archive from the documents of the public author, from the documents of his legal predecessor and from the documents of the private author, if a private archive is established.

(2) The selection of archives in the shredder's proceedings shall be carried out by the competent archives of the documents of the private-law originator, if requested by the private-law author.

(3) The shredding procedure is a procedure whereby documents which have expired and which are no longer necessary for the agent's activities are excluded.

(4) The originator or his successor in title shall be responsible for the proper conduct of the shredding procedure. Such bodies shall be required to allow the appropriate archive to supervise the implementation of the shredding process and the selection of archives in the shredding process.

§ 8

(1) The shredding procedure shall be carried out in the calendar year following the end of the shredding period of the document. The shredder procedure may be carried out later if the entity referred to in Article 7 (4) needs documents for its own activities, in agreement with the archive concerned.

(2) The shredding procedure is carried out on the basis of a shredding proposal. The shredder proposal shall send the body referred to in Article 7 (4) to the appropriate archive for assessment and selection of archives.

(3) Furthermore, the shredder procedure shall be carried out before the public authority has ceased to exist. If this is not possible, archival selection shall be carried out outside the shredding process.

§ 9

(1) The shredder proposal, drawn up by the body referred to in Article 7 (4), contains:

(a) the designation of the body referred to in Article 7 (4);

(b) a list of the documents proposed for the shredding procedure and their duration; where documents resulting from the activity of the originator, the processor of the shredder being the successor in title, are also included in the selection of the archives in the shredder's proceedings, those documents shall be listed separately.

(2) The implementing act provides for details of the shredding procedure and the procedure for the disposal of documents.

§ 10

(1) Following the shredding procedure, the archives concerned shall determine the care to which the documents selected as archives shall belong and draw up a report on the shredding procedure carried out.

(2) The Protocol referred to in paragraph 1 contains:

(a) an inventory of documents or sets of documents selected for archival purposes;

(b) an indication of the archive determined in accordance with paragraph 1;

(c) an inventory of documents which may be destroyed; the inventory shall not be established if it is possible to use the list of documents proposed for the shredding procedure referred to in Article 9 (1) (b).

(3) If the body referred to in Article 7 (4) does not agree with the content of the protocol referred to in paragraph 1, it may object to it within 15 days of the date of service of the protocol to the administrative office on the archiving and the performance of the file service. The opposition shall be lodged in an administrative procedure.

(4) The body referred to in Section 7 (4) may destroy documents intended for destruction in the shredding procedure and listed in the inventory of documents referred to in paragraph 2 (a). (c) after the expiry of the time limit for the submission of objections referred to in paragraph 3 and in the case of the submission of objections after the completion of the opposition proceedings.

Selection of archives outside the shredding process

§ 11

(1) Selection of archives outside the shredding process is carried out by the relevant archive from the documents

(a) the private producer;

(b) the producer referred to in Article 7 (1) which has not undergone the shredding procedure;

(c) offered by the owner of the Czech Republic or any other public archive provider by gift, purchase or storage;

(d) the Czech Republic, which was the ownership of them by death,

(e) found.

(2) The selection of archival sites outside the shredding procedure carried out in accordance with paragraph 1 (a) and (c) shall be initiated at the request of the originator or the owner of the documents. Upon request, the originator or the owner of the documents with the relevant archive shall agree on the dates in which the selection of the archives will be carried out outside the shredding process; in the event of cancellation of the originator, of his entry into liquidation or of a declaration of bankruptcy against the originator, he shall request the originator to select the archives outside the shredding procedure without delay. Before selecting archives outside the shredding process, the archive concerned may request from the originator or document owner a list of the documents proposed for the selection of archives, indicating the time of their creation. Where documents arising from the activity of the originator whose processor is the originator referred to in paragraph 1 (a) are also included in the selection of archives outside the shredding procedure, those documents shall be listed separately; The documents referred to in point (c) of paragraph 1 shall be treated mutatis mutandis when the archive is selected.

(3) The selection of archives outside the shredding procedure referred to in points (b), (d) and (e) of paragraph 1 and where the originator is destroyed without a legal successor shall be carried out ex officio.

(4) The selection of archival sites outside the shredder procedure referred to in paragraph 1 (b) shall be carried out by the archive which would be responsible for selecting archival sites in the shredder procedure.

(5) Documents deposited in museums, libraries, galleries, monuments, public research institutions and universities (hereinafter referred to as "culturally scientific institutions") as a result of their acquisition and collection activities meeting the criteria set out in paragraphs 4 and 5 or in Annex 2 to this Act and taken into archival records shall be considered as archives selected outside the shredding process. The provisions of the first sentence shall be without prejudice to the obligations of the cultural scientific institutions referred to in Article 3 in respect of documents arising from their activities.

§ 12

(1) Upon completion of the selection of archives outside the shredding process, the relevant archive shall draw up a report on the selection of archives outside the shredding process and determine whose care the documents selected as archival will belong. If a selection of archives outside the shredding procedure has been carried out at the request of the owner of the document selected as archival, the document may be entrusted to the care of the archive only with the consent of the owner and on the basis of his acceptance with the determination of the care to which the document will belong.

(2) Paragraph 10 (2) shall apply mutatis mutandis to the content of the Protocol referred to in paragraph 1.

(3) In the event that the originator or the owner of the document does not agree with the content of the record of the archival selection outside the shredding procedure, he may object to it within 15 days of the date of receipt of the report to the administrative office in the archival and file service section. The opposition shall be lodged in an administrative procedure.

Common provisions for the selection of archives

§ 13

(1) For documents containing classified information2) only documents designed for decommissioning and destruction may be submitted for archival selection; for other documents, archival selection may be carried out only after the classification level has been deleted. The selection of archives for which the classification level has not been deleted or the classification level cannot be deleted shall be carried out by the relevant security archives.

(2) For documents containing commercial, 3) banking (4) or similar secrets, only documents designed for disposal and destruction may be submitted for the selection of archives; for other documents, the selection of archives may be made only with the consent of the originator. If the document has been selected as archival, the originator shall, after selecting the archives, affix it to a clause indicating the type of secret contained in the document. The protection of commercial, banking or similar secrets shall not be affected by the selection of documents for archival purposes.

(3) The choice of archives from documents containing personal data and the continued retention of such documents does not require the consent of a natural person under specific legislation. 5)

(4) In the selection of archival sites, the persons carrying out the selection of archival sites are entitled to enter the premises, land and other premises with the knowledge of the originator or the owner of the document, unless the choice of archival sites can be made by other means. If the owner of the document is not the owner of the object or plot or other premises where the document is located, it may be entered only with the consent of the owner.

(5) The originator who does not carry out a file service in electronic form in electronic file service systems shall transfer the document in digital form for the selection of archival sites outside the shredding process to the output data format established by the implementing legislation and shall provide it with metadata provided for by the implementing legislation referred to in Article 19 (g), at the latest when preparing the selection of archival sites outside the shredding process. If the document cannot be translated into a specified data format and provided with metadata, even in cooperation with the relevant archive, the document shall be converted into an analogue form by the originator.

(6) Documents shall be submitted for the selection of archives to the appropriate archive regardless of their location.

§ 14

(1) The staff of the administrative offices in the archiving sector and the performance of the file service, the staff of the archives and their founders are obliged to maintain confidentiality regarding all the facts which they have learned in carrying out their activities under this law. Such obligations may be waived by the competent administrative authority in the archiving and file services section; the exemption must be in writing, indicating the scope and purpose. This is without prejudice to the obligation of confidentiality laid down in specific legislation6.

(2) Where the repository is a legal person, the obligation of confidentiality referred to in paragraph 1 shall apply to natural persons who have become familiar with the protected information due to their employment, function or similar status in that legal person.

(3) The obligation to remain silent continues after termination of service, employment or other similar relationship.

§ 15

(1) Documents selected as archives and intended for the care of the archive shall be transmitted by the originator or the owner of the document on the basis of a record of the shredding procedure or of a record of the selection of archives other than the shredder procedure to the designated archive. The transmission shall be subject to an official record including an inventory of the documents transmitted; for each document in digital format, the data necessary for its search shall be provided. The implementing legislation lays down the details of the inventory of the documents transmitted in digital form.

(2) Archives owned by the Czech Republic and archives owned by local authorities or other public authorities belong to the care of public archives. The archives acquired by the acquisition and collection activities of a cultural scientific institution belong to the care of that institution.

(3) The archives in digital form belonging to the care of the National Archive, the Archive of the Security Services or the State Regional Archives are stored in the National Archive. The archives in digital form belonging to the care of other archives shall be stored in these archives if their founders are authorised to store archives in digital form. If the archive is not authorised to store archives in digital form, the archive in digital form belonging to its care shall be stored in the National Archive or in an archive whose repository is authorised to store archives in digital form ("the digital archive ') by written agreement of the archive promoters. If the archive founder has not concluded an agreement to store the archives, the archives in digital form belonging to his care shall be stored in the National Archive. The competence of the archive under the care of the archive in digital form shall not be affected by its storage in the National Archive or in the digital archive.

(4) At the request of the originator, the archive concerned may issue permanent shredder consent to the type of documents which can be destroyed without the choice of archives. If the originator fails to comply with the conditions laid down in the permanent shredder's consent, the relevant archive may revoke the permanent shredder's consent from its own authority. In the event of the death of the originator, the permanent shredder's consent shall not be passed on to the successor.

archival records

§ 16

(1) After the archival selection, the documents selected as archives are taken into the archive records.

(2) The archives registered in the Czech Republic constitute the National Archive Heritage. The national archive heritage shall be kept in a basic, secondary and central register. The main unit of the register is the archive fund, archive collection or part of it or individual archives.

(3) The basic records of the National Archive Heritage, which include the records of the increments and losses of archives, the records of the National Archive Heritage and the records of archive aids, are kept by the archives and the culturally scientific institutions in whose care the archives are located. Archives and cultural scientific institutions shall include the basic units of the registration in the basic records of the National Archive Heritage after the selection of archives. When a document is selected as archival in digital form, it is registered as archival and its replica is stored in the National Archive or in the digital archive; a reply means, for the purpose of the care of archival in digital form, a string of characters identical to the digital document from which it was created.

(4) The National Archives (§ 46) or the State Regional Archives (§ 49) shall keep a basic record of the part of the National Archive Heritage which does not belong to the care of archives or cultural scientific institutions according to their respective responsibilities.

(5) A secondary register of the National Archive Heritage belonging to the care of archives or cultural scientific institutions, which includes the records of the National Archive Heritage and the records of archiving aids, shall be maintained by the National Archive or the State Regional Archives as appropriate. Archives and cultural scientific institutions are required to provide the archive which keeps secondary records, to provide data from the records of the National Archive Heritage and from the records of archive aids and to send copies of their archive aids.

(6) The Central Register of the National Archive Heritage, which includes the records of the National Archive Heritage and the records of archiving aids, is maintained by the Ministry. The archives and cultural scientific institutions leading the basic record shall provide the Ministry with data from the records of the National Archive Heritage and from the records of archive aids and send them copies of their archive aids.

§ 17

(1) Each registration of the National Archive Heritage shall be kept in paper form or on technical media or in a way combining those forms and shall be transmitted in the same form. The basic records of the National Archive Heritage must always be kept in paper form.

(2) The Ministry will decide, on a proposal from the Founder of the Archive, to be excluded from the records of the National Archive Heritage

(a) the archive fund or the archive collection, in order to re-evaluate their importance;

(b) archive fund, archive collection or archive for destruction; in the case of an archive fund, archive collection or archival in digital form, destruction shall also be considered as a breach of their content, loss of their legibility or loss of metadata necessary for handling the archive fund, archive collection or archival in digital form;

(c) archival fund, archive collection or archival material for the purpose of issuing abroad.

(3) The archive or cultural scientific institution will exclude the archive they keep in the basic register from the records of the National Archive Heritage due to a reassessment of the significance.

(4) The application for exclusion from the records of the National Archive Heritage as referred to in paragraph 2 shall be submitted by the bodies leading the archive fund, archive collection or archive in the basic register.

(5) The application referred to in paragraph 4 shall contain:

(a) the designation of the applicant body;

(b) the designation of the archive fund, archive collection or archivaly;

(c) the reason for the decommissioning of the archive fund, archive collection or archival,

(d) a copy of the current record sheet of the National Archive Heritage of the Archive Fund or of the archive collection which is subject to decommissioning, or of the archive fund or archive collection to which the discarded archives belong;

(e) the size of the excluded archive fund, archive collection or archival in flats, if the archive fund, archive collection or archive is designed to be disabled in digital form.

§ 18

(1) The Ministry shall keep records of all archives, archive collections and archive funds or their integrated parts declared as archival cultural monuments or national cultural monuments. The archives in which such archives, archive collections, archive funds or their integrated parts are stored shall be kept in a separate register. Special records shall include:

(a) a description of the essential characteristics of the archive, archive collection, archive fund or integrated parts thereof;

b) údaje o tom, kdy byla archiválie, archivní sbírka, archivní fond nebo jejich ucelená část prohlášena za archivní kulturní památku nebo za národní kulturní památku,

c) údaje o tom, kdo o archiválii, archivní sbírku, archivní soubor nebo jejich ucelenou část pečuje a kde je uložena.

(2) Ministerstvo eviduje archivy a kulturně vědecké instituce, které vedou základní evidenci Národního archivního dědictví. Při vedení této evidence je ministerstvo oprávněno zjišťovat, zpracovávat a uchovávat tyto údaje:

a) název a sídlo archivu nebo kulturně vědecké instituce,

b) název, sídlo a identifikační číslo osoby (dále jen „identifikační číslo“) právnické osoby, která je zřizovatelem subjektu nebo zařízení uvedeného v písmenu a) nebo vůči němu plní funkci zřizovatele,

(c) the name, surname, date of birth and place of permanent residence of the natural person, if he is the founder of the body or establishment referred to in (a).

(3) When keeping records under this Act, the Ministry, National Archives, the Archives of Security Services and the State Regional Archives shall be authorised to detect, process and store data on the originators, owners and holders of the archives in the

(a) the names, surnames, permanent residence and date of birth, if any, of the natural person; or

(b) the name, identification number and registered office, if any.

§ 18a

(1) In the event of the disappearance of the public archive, the Ministry shall determine the archive to which the archives shall belong; the identification of the archive prevents the disappearance of the public archive. Archives may be entrusted to the care of the National Archive or the State Regional Archive.

(2) The Ministry will decide, on a proposal from the archive or, where appropriate, the archive founder, to transfer the archive to the care of another archive. If the transfer of archival to the care of an archive other than the National Archive or the State Regional Archive is proposed, the Ministry may comply with the proposal if the archive agrees.

§ 18b

Portals for accessing archives in digital form

(1) The digital archives stored in the National Archive are made available in a way that allows remote access through a portal for the accessibility of archives in a digital form, the administrator of which is the National Archive ("the National Portal").

(2) The digital archives which are stored in the digital archive, with the exception of the security archive, are made available in a way that allows remote access through a portal for making archives available in digital form, the administrator of which is the digital archive.

Citation	Act No. 499 / 2004 Coll., on archiving and file services and on the amendment of certain laws
Regulation Type	Law
Author	-
Collection	Code of Laws

Date of Promulgation	23.09.2004
Effective from	01.01.2005
Effective until	-
Status	Valid

Act No. 499 / 2004 Coll.

Act on archiving and writing services and on the amendment of certain laws

Contents