Section 17

A person must not, without the authorisation of the Board under subsection (4), destroy or otherwise dispose of, or authorise the destruction or disposal of, any public records which are in the person’s possession or under the person’s control.

Any person intending to destroy or dispose of, or to authorise the destruction or disposal of, any public records must first notify the Board of that intention and must, in the person’s notification, specify the nature of the public records in question.

The Board may inspect any public records specified in any notification under subsection (2) and must, if it requires those records to be made available to it, inform the person making the notification of that requirement, and the public records must be made available to the Board.

The Board may authorise the destruction of any specified classes of public records which by reason of their number, kind or routine nature do not in its opinion possess any enduring value for preservation as public archives.[14D