Statement Of Compliance With Retention Schedule
Objective
We aim to highlight to the user how and when data/records should be destroyed.
Records Retention and Disposal
Records should not be retained any longer than is necessary for the efficient operation of the Authority, or to meet statutory/regulatory obligations. Records that have outlived their administrative usefulness or statutory retention period, should be destroyed systematically in accordance with the Destruction & Disposal Procedures
Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and Data Protection Act 1998, it is a criminal offence to destroy or dispose of records once the Authority has received a formal request to access the information contained in those records.
As a rule, the following types of records below have no significant operational, informational or evidential value. They can therefore be destroyed as soon as they have served their primary purpose.
Examples taken from: The JISC. HEI Business Function & Activity Model, 2003.
- Announcements and notices of meetings and other events, and notifications of acceptance or apologies
- Requests for stock information such as maps, travel directions, brochures etc.
- Requests for, and confirmations of, reservations for internal services (e.g. meeting rooms, car parking spaces, pool cars) where no internal charges are made
- Requests for, and confirmations of, reservations with third parties (e.g. travel, hotel
- accommodation, restaurants) when invoices have been received
- Transmission documents: letters, FAX cover sheets, e-mail messages, routing slips,
- compliments slips and similar items which accompany documents, but do not add any value to them
- Message slips
- Superseded address lists, distribution lists etc.
- Duplicate documents such as: ‘CC’ and ‘FYI’ copies, unaltered drafts, ‘Snapshot’ printouts or extracts from databases, ‘Day Files’ (chronological copies of correspondence)
- Personal diaries, address books etc.
- Working papers, where the results have been written into an official document and which are not required to support it
- Stocks of in-house publications which are obsolete, superseded or otherwise useless e.g. magazines, marketing materials, prospectuses, catalogues, manuals, directories, forms, and other material produced for wide distribution
- Published or reference materials received from other parties or from vendors or other external organisations which require no action and are not needed for ‘record’ purposes, e.g. trade magazines, vendor catalogues, flyers, newsletters.
