Section 70 – Amendment of Public Records (Scotland) Act 1937
160.This section amends the Public Records (Scotland) Act 1937. Section 70(2) amends section 7 of that Act to provide that the Scottish Records Advisory Council – an independent advisory body established under the 1937 Act – may advise the Scottish Ministers on matters relating to the application of the Act to information contained in records held by the Keeper of the Records of Scotland. Section 70(3) adds a new duty on the Keeper to arrange that reasonable facilities are available to the public for inspecting and obtaining copies of records which he holds and which fall to be disclosed in accordance with the Act or are exempt under section 25(2)(b)(ii). In practice, such facilities and copying services already exist at the National Archives of Scotland. However, inspection of records held by the Keeper did not feature in the 1937 Act and this amendment will now make it a requirement for such facilities to be made available.
