Corporate retention schedule

Introduction

This schedule has been drafted in order to assist with the implementation of the council’s corporate information management strategy and to assist the council in its ongoing compliance with the Freedom of Information Act 2000, the Data Protection Act 2018 and the General Data Protection Regulations (EU), Environmental Information Regulations and related information legislation.

To enable compliance with information related legislation, the council needs to know where all its information is, how long it should be kept for and what reasons we are keeping it for, along with a well-managed corporate disposal policy.

The schedule is a ‘living document’ that will be amended and modified as and when retention details change, new information is obtained, or regulations and legislation that govern information and its use are introduced or changed.

Personal information –specific requirements

The General Data Protection Regulation requires that the council should:

• Process your data lawfully, fairly and in a transparent manner
• Process your data only for the specified, explicit and legitimate purpose (the reason) that we have obtained it for
• Ensure that the data is adequate, relevant and limited to only the data we need
• Process you data accurately and keep it up to date
• Ensure your data is not kept longer than is necessary
• Make sure your data is secure.

To comply with these principles, the council is required to have appropriate procedures in place, covering the review of information held on files. Such procedures include the establishment of a policy covering the retention and disposal of records – The corporate retention schedule and the overarching corporate disposal policy. These also form part of the council’s obligations to maintain certain records of processing activities.

Unless otherwise stated, personal data should not be held for longer than 6 years after the subject’s last contact with the council. This period reflects the general time within which, under the Limitation Act 1980, a civil action could be brought before the courts. It should also be noted that, under this Act, civil action can be taken up to 12 years following certain events.

Notable exceptions to this general 6 year period occur when records:

• Are held in legal documents ‘under seal’ where they may have to be retained for up to 12 years
• Need to be retained because the information contained in them is relevant to legal action which has been started
• Are required to be kept for a longer or shorter period by statute
• Are archived for historical purposes
• Consist of a sample of records maintained for the purpose of retrospective comparison
• Involve the transfer of significant information, with data subject identification, on to aggregated files
• Are held in order to provide for the data subject and certain aspects of his/her personal history.

Where the council’s legal service becomes aware of any pending legal action, a note will be attached to the file confirming that it should not be destroyed.

Examples of records that may be destroyed after effective use

As a general rule, the following types of records have no significant operational, informational or evidential value. They can therefore be destroyed as soon as they have served their primary purpose or are no longer of effective use.

Retention periods

Directorate or service specific retention periods are published in Directorate based documents. These individual documents cover the following:

Retention periods that apply across all council directorates or services There are some retention periods for records that apply across all services and where possible these are listed here.

Retention periods that apply across all council directorates or services

There are some retention periods for records that apply across all services and where possible these are listed here.