Public Records (Scotland) Act 1937

12 Disposal of documents not to be preserved by the Keeper

(1) The Lord Justice General, as regards records of the High Court of Justiciary, the Lord President, as regards other court records, and the Secretary of State, as regards any other records to which this Act applies, may make regulations regarding the disposal by destruction or otherwise of records which have been transmitted to the Keeper in pursuance of this Act or otherwise, and which are of insufficient value to justify their preservation or which would more appropriately be in the custody of any person, body or institution other than the Keeper.

(2) Regulations under this section shall not be made until a draft thereof has lain before each House of Parliament for a period of thirty days during the Session of Parliament, and if, before the expiration of that period, an address is presented to His Majesty by either House against the draft, no further proceedings shall be taken thereon, without prejudice however to the making of any new draft regulations:

Provided that in reckoning any such period of thirty days as aforesaid no account shall be taken of any time during which both Houses are adjourned for more than four days.

(3) No regulations made under this section shall authorise—

(a) the disposal of records relating to a Government department or belonging to a local authority without the consent of that department or authority; or

(b) the disposal of any record of older date than the year eighteen hundred.