Records Disposal

Once records have reached the end of their useful life, they must be disposed of. The bulk of records, approximately 95% of those created by the Council, will be destroyed but some will be transferred to the Archives as historical records.

Your department should have a retention schedule that lists all records which are created, for how long they should be kept, and whether they should be destroyed or transferred to the Archives. It is important that records are not destroyed or transferred before the time period set out in the retention schedule. It is also important that records should be destroyed or transferred when that time period is up, to make space for new records which are being created.

Destroying records

Records or files identified by the retention schedule as ready for disposal should be written up into a file list. This list should then be approved by your line manager prior to destruction. This file list should be kept permanently as a record of what has been destroyed. Records can then be destroyed, preferably by shredding or incineration.