Retention of Documents Policy

1 Introduction

1.1 Macclesfield Town Council keeps data and information for as long as there is an administrative need, to enable the council to carry outs its business or support functions or for as long as is required by a council for audit purposes, legal requirements and local transparency. Many of the documents are stored on the Macclesfield Town Council website and for the sake of clarity, many will be kept electronically.

1.2 Both the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA), the UK GDPR Data Protection Act 2018 require public bodies to manage information and its access in particular ways.

2 Strategic approach to record management

2.1 Macclesfield Town Council’s policy on record management will enable the Council to:

• Comply with the relevant legislation and codes of practice,
• Create authentic, reliable and useable records,
• Support the Council’s business functions, including asset management,
• Document the Council’s decisions and activities,
• Reduce storage costs,
• Facilitate the paperless office,
• Enable the efficient and accurate retrieval of information,
• Dispose correctly of records no longer required.

2.2 The Town Clerk and the Admin and Governance Manager will be responsible for record management.  All initial queries should be made to the Admin and Governance Manager.

2.3 The DPO may undertake regular reviews of this policy to verify that it is in effective operation and advise of any changes for ongoing improvement.

3 Staff responsibility

3.1 All staff are obliged to:

• Keep accurate records in an organised and accessible form,
• Keep records for only as long as necessary,

4 Periods of retention

4.1 The minimum periods for which various types of records must be kept are set out in the Retention Schedule at Annex A.  These reflect statutory requirements, codes of practice and recommendations published by professional and other bodies.  In the absence of any guidance, it will be the responsibility of the Council to determine a suitable retention period.

4.2 At the end of the retention period, the record must be  assessed  to  determine whether it should be retained for a further period.  This is particularly relevant where the record has been the subject of a request for access to information under the Data Protection Act (DPA) or the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).  This is the case even where access to information has been refused, as the record should be retained until the end of the period in which an appeal can be lodged or the appeals procedure exhausted.

5 Record disposal

5.1 Records designated for disposal must be securely disposed of to preserve confidentiality.   No record is to be disposed of without the approval of the Town Clerk or Admin and Governance Manager, and a note made of which records are destroyed with their date of destruction.

Annex A