What are Retention Periods?
These are the periods of time, varying from a few months to permanency during which a record has to be maintained by an institution. This is usually determined by statute, legal, regulatory or business compliance, or where these do not apply, by a best assessment of risks involved in destruction against the costs of retention. The retention period may consist of:
A fixed number of years from creation:
Most financial records of organisations have to be kept for the current year +6 years to meet VAT and Tax regulations, an effective total of 7 years. In this case the destruction date is known, fixed and can proceed without further intervention.
The life of the transaction + a fixed period of years.
Commercial contracts must be maintained for the life of the contract + 6 years. The exact number of years will depend upon the period of the contract.
In some cases records created on the same day for the same type of transaction and apparently similar may be due for final destruction years apart. Student records again provide an obvious example. Detailed records of nursing students will be required for the whole working life of the nurse. It does not follow that every piece of paper or information which is included in such a 'file' has to be maintained throughout. Legislation (Data protection) common sense and efficiency dictate that the 'file' content should be reviewed, and the minimum necessary kept. Pension, student and many types of Human Resource records fall within this category. In many organisations the practice is to review such files after 5 years, review the content, remove all superfluous material and in effect create a new file, or files, some of which may be individually organized according to disposal date. This process will be recorded and audited.
A suggested list of retention periods for further and higher education institutions may be found as part of the JISC Study of the Records Lifecycle.
Recognised Standards
The Codes of Practice noted in the introduction to this infoKit are based on internationally recognised standards of practice for records management in the English-speaking world. While these tend to be very detailed and are prescriptive in tone it is certainly a good idea to have these on your bookshelf for ready reference. No-one would recommend that you know these by heart, and they are not bedtime reading. On the other hand they are clear and objective standards by which your work can be judged both by your peers and by outsiders, and most have summaries of the key points, which are very useful in the persuasion process.
These standards fall into three categories:
Technical standards for information security, records management, microfilm and electronic records management
How to provide records which are capable of being recognised as authentic in a court of law
Certification of copy documents
The purpose of these standards is to provide a guarantee of the authenticity and integrity of a copy of any record being produced for any purpose. Why is this necessary?
There is increasing anecdotal evidence that the authorities are drawing a distinction between records management and information processing, that is to say situations in which the record could or could not be altered before it is submitted. The distinction is particularly important in the case of electronic records.
To view these in greater detail click here
