Las Palmas approves the Municipal Archive regulations

The Plenary of the City Council of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria has definitively approved the Municipal Archive Regulations, which regulate the comprehensive management of municipal documents, citizen access, and the transparency of the local administration. The agreement, adopted in an ordinary session held on May 29, 2026, has become definitive as no allegations were filed during the public information process. The text is published in the Official Gazette of the Province of Las Palmas number 101, dated August 24, 2026, entering into force the day following its publication.

The regulation is processed in execution of the function attributed in article 122.5.d) of Law 7/1985, of April 2, Regulating the Bases of the Local Regime, and was communicated to the State Administration and the Autonomous Community on July 29, 2026. The regulations are structured into six chapters and twenty-five articles, and are based on the framework of Law 16/1985, on Spanish Historical Heritage, Law 3/1990, on Documentary Heritage and Archives of the Canary Islands, and Law 12/2014, on transparency and access to public information of the Canary Islands.

Documentary management and archive structure

The regulations organize the management of documents throughout their entire life cycle, from their entry to their classification and description. The Municipal Archive is organized into two management levels:

• Office Archives, responsible for the custody of archival units in each administrative unit.
• The General Archive, which performs the dual function of intermediate and historical archive of the City Council.

The transfer of documentation will be carried out according to the conservation calendar, and electronic files will be transferred to the Electronic Archive, guaranteeing their authenticity, integrity, and availability according to the National Security Framework and the National Interoperability Framework.

Documentary Valuation Commission

The Documentary Valuation Commission is created, a collegiate body responsible for establishing the valuation criteria for documentary series to determine their conservation or elimination. It will be chaired by the person holding the General Secretariat of the Plenary and composed of the head of the Municipal Archive, the Legal Advisory Service, the Information and Communication Technologies Service, and the head of the service whose documents are being valued. No archival unit may be destroyed without having been previously valued by the Commission.

Citizen access and loans

The municipal administration guarantees citizen access to the held documents, preferably electronically through the electronic office. Access to the General Archive funds is open to researchers who certify historical, cultural, scientific, or statistical purposes. Regarding loans:

• Archival units may only be loaned to municipal administrative services and the political representation of the Corporation.
• The return period is one month, extendable only in exceptional cases and upon a reasoned request.
• Photographic, graphic, and audiovisual materials, as well as documents more than forty years old or in poor state of conservation, are excluded from loans.

The regulation concludes with a disciplinary regime that holds municipal staff responsible for the custody and conservation of loaned documents, and empowers the competent governing body in documentary management for its development and compliance. The text is signed by the Deputy General Secretary of the Plenary, Rita Katiuska Hernández Alemán, in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, on August 20, 2026.

Source: Official Gazette of the Province of Las Palmas, number 101, August 24, 2026, III. Local Administration, page 14934 (official reference: 1755868).