The Diputació de Girona definitively approves the archives service regulations

The Plenary of the Girona Provincial Council has definitively approved the new Regulations of the Archives and Document Management Service, after the public information period, which ended on August 25, passed without any allegations being presented. The edict of definitive approval is published in the Official Gazette of the Province of Girona number 172, dated September 7, 2026, with official reference BOP-2026_0_172_7798 (pp. 1-24), signed by the president of the corporation, Miquel Noguer Planas.

The Plenary had initially approved the Regulations in an ordinary session on June 16, 2026, and the edict was published in BOP number 5708, dated July 1, 2026, with reference to the DOGC no. 9707 of July 14. In accordance with the agreement itself, as no allegations were formulated, the initial approval has been elevated to definitive without the need for a new agreement.

A renewed regulatory framework

The new Regulations replace the Regulations of the Archives and Document Management System approved by the Plenary on June 18, 2013, which are hereby repealed. The renewal responds to the organizational evolution of the corporation and the exponential increase in electronic documentation, resulting from the implementation of electronic administration and the comprehensive digitalization of management processes.

The text adapts to Law 10/2001, of July 13, on archives and document management of Catalonia, and to transparency laws—the state Law 19/2013 and the Catalan Law 19/2014—as well as Laws 39/2015 and 40/2015, which establish the model for electronic administration. It also aligns with the Provincial Council’s General Ordinance on Electronic Administration (2020) and the Document Management Policy (2015).

The document management system

The Regulations govern the Archives and Document Management Service as the set of functions and resources that guarantee the comprehensive management of the documents of the Provincial Council and its institutional public sector. The Document Management System integrates and unifies the documentary management of all bodies, controlling documents at all stages of their life cycle.

The instruments of the System include:

• the registration of documents and the registration and tracking of files;
• the funds organization chart, the producing units chart, and the classification chart;
• the catalog of electronic document formats and the catalog of document types;
• the metadata scheme.

The single electronic archive is configured as the central corporate repository for the preservation of electronic documents and files. Documentation must remain in the respective administrative archives for up to six years from the closing of the files, and must then be transferred, once evaluated, to the General Archive of the Girona Provincial Council.

Access to documentation and transparency

The Regulation develops the regime for citizens’ access to public documents, which can only be denied by a reasoned resolution and in application of the legally established limitations. In general, consultation exclusions cease to be effective thirty years after the production of the document; in the case of personal data, access may be permitted with the consent of the affected parties or when twenty-five years have passed since the death of the person or fifty years since the production of the document.

The external consultation service is limited to persons over sixteen years of age, although access for minors may be authorized within the framework of pedagogical programs. The Service performs the functions of an information unit in the area of active publicity and the right of access, and must publish the description instruments, the elimination register, and the access limitations.

The Regulation enters into force the day after its publication in the BOP, once the fifteen business days referred to in article 65.2 of Law 7/1985, on the bases of local regime, have elapsed. Against the agreement, which exhausts the administrative route, a contentious-administrative appeal may be filed before the Contentious-Administrative Chamber of the High Court of Justice of Catalonia within a period of two months.

The new regulation provides the corporation with a clear and updated normative instrument to exercise the functions attributed by legislation regarding archives, and reinforces the right of access to public information and compliance with transparency obligations in a context of increasing digitalization of the Administration.

Fuente: Official Gazette of the Province of Girona, no. 172, September 7, 2026, Local Administration section, pp. 1-24 (official reference: BOP-2026_0_172_7798).