Types of records authorities

The two common types of records authorities for Australian Government agencies are:

agency-specific records authorities
general records authorities (GRAs)

Use both types of authorities to perform accountable disposal of your agency’s business information and records.

Agency-specific records authorities

An agency-specific records authority covers the records an agency creates in relation to their unique business functions.

General records authorities

The National Archives issues general records authorities (GRAs) to authorise the disposal of information and records of administrative business activities and responsibilities common to many Australian Government agencies. They set out the requirements for:

keeping records
destroying records
transferring records

AFDA Express Version 2 is the GRA for a range of common administrative functions.

General records authorities for common business activities

View the current set of Australian Government GRAs below by their title or number.

GRA by title

GRA by number

GDA 21 Intelligence Function in any Commonwealth Agency (PDF134KB)
GDA 23 Cockatoo Island Dockyard Pty Ltd Arbitration (PDF 50KB)
GDA 24 Data Matching Exercises [Revoked] (PDF 30KB)
GRA 26 Advisory Bodies
GRA 27 Governing Bodies
GRA 28 Grant Management
GRA 29 Public or Official Inquiries
GRA 30 Damaged records beyond recovery – natural disaster, a defined emergency or other unforeseen circumstance
GRA 31 Digitisation, conversion or migration – destruction of source or original records after digitisation, conversion or migration
GRA 32 Small Collection Management
GRA 33 Accredited Training
GRA 34 Establishing & winding up entities & companies
GRA 35 Images on unstable bases
GRA 36 Contracts under Seal/Deeds [Superseded] (PDF 649KB)
GRA 37 Research & Development
GRA 38 Ministers of State,

Quick Reference Guide on using GRA 38 (PDF 117KB)
GRA 39 Public Interest Disclosure
GRA 40 Outsourcing arrangements – custody of records
GRA 41 Child Sexual Abuse Incidents and Allegations
Encrypted records created in online security processes (PDF 144KB)
Personal Security Files – custody and ownership (PSFs)

AFDA Express Version 2

AFDA Express Version 2 is the authorised version of the Administrative Functions Disposal Authority (AFDA).

It replaced previous versions of AFDA and AFDA Express on 1 July 2019.

You cannot use those versions to sentence records anymore.

AFDA Express Version 2 sets out requirements for keeping or destroying records of administrative business performed by most Australian Government agencies. This includes functions such as:

finance
human resources
procurement
publications management

Summary of changes

AFDA Express Version 2 combines AFDA and AFDA Express.

It includes the following improvements:

revised and rolled-up functions
new retention and destruction requirements
improved discoverability
streamlined sentencing of low value records by including classes with shorter retention periods

An index that maps the old and new classes for each function will be available soon.

For a complete summary of the changes, refer to the following document:

AFDA Express Version 2 differences (PDF 156KB)

Using AFDA Express Version 2

AFDA Express Version 2 - alternative formats

Each AFDA Express Version 2 function is available in:

HTML
PDF
Word
Excel spreadsheet (available shortly)
Plain text file with xml tags (available shortly)

Use the XML and Excel versions to upload into information systems.

These versions include the following information for each disposal class:

function name, scope note and 'for' statements
activity name, scope note and 'for' statements
class status, description and 'for' statements
disposal class number
the disposal action

Use these files together with the complete PDF version.

We recommend you quality check these versions when uploading.

Superseded versions of AFDA and AFDA Express

ADFA Express Version 2 has replaced the following versions of AFDA and AFDA Express.

Administrative Functions Disposal Authority (AFDA)

AFDA issued March 2010, superseded July 2019:

AFDA March 2010 (PDF 6.6MB)

AFDA 2010

Summary of amendments to the 2000 version:

AFDA 2010 - summary of amendments (PDF 94KB)

AFDA 2010 superseded classes table lists corresponding classes in the 2010 edition and advises on the need to resentence:

ADFA 2010 - superseded classes table (PDF 108KB)

AFDA Express

AFDA Express (2010, revised February 2013) issued in March 2010 and superseded July 2019:

AFDA Express 2010 (PDF 3.7MB)

AFDA Express mapping guide shows the relationships between AFDA and AFDA Express:

AFDA Express mapping guide (PDF 738KB)

AFDA Express – Government relations – RNA class 20267 replaced by RNA class 61224 on 7 February 2013:

AFDA Express - Government relations (PDF 52KB)

AFDA 2000

Administrative Functions Disposal Authority (AFDA) issued in 2000, superseded in March 2010:

AFDA 2000 (PDF 1.9MB)

COVID-19 recordkeeping

Find out about managing records relating to the COVID-19 pandemic.