Collections Management Policy

4. Statutory and legal basis for Lancashire Archives

4.1 Lancashire Archives is the sole provider of archive services to Lancashire County Council and its constituent authorities under sections 224 and 226(5) of the Local Government Act 1972. This requires councils to make proper arrangements for any documents which belong to them, or are in their custody, and applies to records which are still in active use, as well as to those which are now inactive.

4.2 Lancashire Archives exercises the county council's powers in respect of historical, private and business records under the terms of the Local Government (Records) Act, 1962, as amended by the Local Government Act 1985. This empowers authorities to incur expenditure on facilities for the preservation, promotion of use, and public access to records of general or local interest, acquired by purchase, gift or deposit.

4.3 Since local government reorganisation in 1998 Lancashire Archives has also provided archive services to Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council under joint arrangements.

4.4 Lancashire Archives has been appointed by the Lord Chancellor as a place of deposit for local public records under the Public Records Act 1958 as amended 1967(especially in respect of s3(6) and s4(1)).

4.5 Lancashire Archives has been designated by the Master of the Rolls as a repository approved for the custody of manorial records under the Law of Property Act 1922 and the Law of Property (Amendment) Act, 1924 and the Manorial Document Rules 1959 and 1967; and for the deposit of tithe documents under the Tithes (Copies of Instruments of Apportionment) Rules, 1960 and 1963.

4.6 Lancashire Archives functions as a diocesan record office in respect of Anglican parishes within Lancashire and the dioceses of Blackburn, Liverpool, and Leeds, under the Parochial Registers and Records Measure 1978 (No 2) as amended by the Church of England's (Miscellaneous Provisions) Measure 1992 (No 1). It also serves as diocesan record office for the Roman Catholic dioceses of Lancaster and Salford and the Archdiocese of Liverpool.