Archivo General - Ministerio Del Interior

The Archive System of the Ministry of the Interior (El Sistema de Archivos del Ministerio del Interior) is made up of the General Archive (Archivo General) and the set of Management Archives (Archivos de Gestión) that conserve, control and process the documentation produced or conserved by the Department at each stage of the life cycle of the documents, in accordance with the rules applicable to them.

The Archives System of the Ministry of the Interior provides the framework for the rules, means and procedures through which the Archives of the Ministry of the Interior and the Documentary Heritage are operated and protected. It is made up of management, coordination and technical advisory bodies, a series of archives, and regulations that give cohesion to the system and regulate its procedures.

The archives dependent on the Ministry of the Interior form part of the Spanish Archives System provided for by Law 16/1985, of 25 June, on Spanish Historical Heritage. Article 65 provides that "each Ministerial Department shall ensure the coordination of the operation of all the archives of the Ministry and of the bodies linked to it...". In accordance with this article, the Ministry of the Interior has issued different Orders that establish the basic rules on the organisation and operation of its Archive System.

The Orders of 21 December 2000, creating the Qualifying Commission for Administrative Documents of the Ministry of the Interior and regulating access to its dependent archives, and that of 7 March 2001, creating, under the General Archive of the Ministry of the Interior, the Sections of the General Directorates of the Police and the Civil Guard, were the starting point for the articulation of the Department's Archive System for the proper management of its administrative documentation.

Order INT/2528/2002, of 2 October 2002, which regulates the Ministry of the Interior's Archive System, establishes the basic rules on the organisation and operation of the Department's Archive System, bearing in mind that the correct operation of this Archive System requires the implementation of a standardised and uniform archive treatment in all units of the Department, regardless of the volume and nature of their respective documentary collections.

The direction and coordination of the Archive System of the Ministry of the Interior are the responsibility of the General Technical Secretariat, Subdirectorate General of Associations, Archives and Documentation.

The General Technical Secretariat directs the Archives System through the Subdirectorate General for Associations, Archives and Documentation and its Archives Coordination and Documentary Management Area, which includes the Department's General Archive. The General Technical Secretariat's fundamental duties are:

1. To ensure the coordination of the operation of all the Archives of the Ministry and of the bodies linked to it, to inspect their technical work, to ensure compliance with the regulations in force therein, and to promote the training and updating of personnel in archival matters with tasks in the Archivist System.

2. To draw up and approve procedural standards and technical instructions, on the basis of reports from the Qualifying Commission, thus promoting the unification of criteria in the Department's Archives on the different archival matters and work and the standardised instruments and forms derived therefrom, in accordance with the system in force for the State Archives (los Archivos del Estado), and on any other matters relating to the archival treatment of documents at any stage of their life cycle; as well as drawing up and coordinating the action programmes of the Documentary Heritage of the Ministry of the Interior.

3. To coordinate, maintain and update the Census of the Documentary Heritage of the Ministry of the Interior, without prejudice to the necessary collaboration for the maintenance of the census of state archives that the cultural authorities require, and to provide the corresponding general information on said heritage to the entities, bodies or persons that request it.

4. To advise and provide technical assistance to the authorities and bodies responsible for complying with this Order.

The Administrative Documents Qualifying Commission of the Ministry of the Interior is the specific collegiate body that studies and dictates questions relating to the qualification and use of its documents, as well as its system of transfers, access and administrative uselessness. All the Department's higher and managerial centres are represented in it.

Archivo General The General Archive of the Ministry of the Interior depends on the Area of Coordination of Archives and Documentary Management of the General Subdirectorate of Associations, Archives and Documentation, which in turn depends on the General Technical Secretariat (Royal Decree 400/2012, of 17 February, which develops the basic organic structure of the Ministry of the Interior (BOE no. 42, of 18 February). Correction of errors in BOE no. 88, of 12 April). Its functions are those of a central archive of the Ministerial Department: