What is the Territory Records Office?
The Territory Records Act 2002 (the Act) established the position of Director of Territory Records and made provision for public servants to assist the Director. The group providing this assistance is known as the Territory Records Office. 
The functions of the Director and the Territory Records Office are varied and include providing assistance to agencies, oversighting records management across the government and providing advice to the minister. 
The Director has the following functions:
(a)	to develop and approve standards and codes for records management by agencies;
(b)	to assist in the development of an agency’s records management program and amendments of the program; 
(c)	to encourage consistency in records management programs between agencies;
(d)	on behalf of the Territory or an agency, to recover possession or control of records that, for whatever reason, are not under the control of an agency;
(e)	to give advice to agencies about the preparation of, and to approve or suspend, schedules for the disposal of records under records management programs;
(f)	to monitor the disposal of records by agencies;
(g)	to examine the operation of the records management program of an agency and the agency’s compliance with this Act and the program and report on the operation and compliance;
(h)	to advise the Minister on any matter relevant to records management or the operation of this Act;
(i)	to give assistance, advice and training to agencies in records management;
(j)	to develop measures for the preservation of records about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander heritage;
(k)	to encourage consistency between agencies in the preparation of indexes and other guides to assist in the awareness of, and access to, records;
(l)	to encourage the development of appropriate records management training for agency staff;
(m)	on behalf of the Territory or an agency, to enter into and manage arrangements with the National Archives of Australia or any other entity about records management;
(n)	to assist in the development of facilities for access by the public to records.
In preparation for the commencement of the access provisions of the Territory Records Act 2002 a new unit of the Territory Records Office was established to provide access on behalf of agencies to the older records of the ACT Government.  This unit is known as ArchivesACT.  This unit receives requests for access from members of the public, locates the records, retrieves them from agencies and then makes them available under supervision for reference.