1. Introduction
1.1. Oxford City Council is required to produce a Records Retention Schedule in line with the Lord Chancellor’s Code of Practice on the Management of Records issued under Section 46 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000. This document sets out details about all the records created and kept by us in such a way that decisions can be made about identifying and disposing of them on a routine and timely basis.
2. Scope
2.1. This Records Retention Policy applies to all documents defined as records - ‘Information created, received and maintained as evidence and information by an organisation or individual, in pursuance of legal obligations or in the transaction of business’ i.e. evidence of Oxford City Council’s actions, transactions, decisions and agreements.
2.2. The retention requirements listed in the Retention Schedule apply to all records irrespective of media and format, or the system(s) in which the records are held, and should be applied to all copies including backups. Most other information need only be kept for as long as the information is necessary and is being used for business or audit purposes only.
2.3. Divergence from the retention schedule may be appropriate in certain circumstances. For example, a pending or actual legal action, change of legislation or regulation, or legitimate business need. Any divergence requires liaison with the Information Governance Manager and the Information Asset Owner.
3. Responsibilities
3.1. Directors/Managers are responsible for:
- ensuring local procedures are implemented to comply with the Council’s Data Protection Policy and supporting guidance;
- ensuring staff understand their record keeping responsibilities and have adequate time to properly undertake these activities and attend corporate/service awareness training sessions;
- ensuring recordkeeping systems enable identification of records due for disposal;
- ensuring records due for disposal are routinely identified and reviewed to ensure they are no longer required;
- contributing to and enforcing compliance with business retention and disposal requirements set out in the appropriate retention and disposal schedules;
- identifying vital business records and records suitable for historical permanent preservation;
- identifying whether semi active physical records are to be retained or scanned and destroyed;
- ensuring that appropriate access restrictions and password protections are used for all confidential information stored on shared drives, cloud services or systems;
- highlighting any concerns in terms of records and information management with the Information Governance Team.
3.2. All staff are responsible for:
- managing the information they create and use on a day to day basis;
- retaining all records in line with identified business requirements and as outlined in the appropriate retention and disposal schedule;
- ensuring records are saved and filed in such a way that it is meaningful and facilitates retrieval by those with similar access privileges;
- disposing of records in accordance with the requirements of the Records Retention Schedule and Records Management Guidance;
- bringing any issues in relation to information and records management to the attention of their managers allowing, if necessary, for these to be raised with the Information Governance Team as soon as possible.
4. Legal Requirements
4.1. Each entry in the retention and disposal schedule details the specific legislation, regulations, guidelines or codes of practice that stipulate or recommend how long records must be kept before they are disposed of. Where no such legislation or guidance exists, retention periods are based on common best practices.
4.2. The UK General Data Protection Regulation 2018 and Data Protection Act 2018 Requires that we must not keep personal data for longer than needed for the purpose for which it was collected.
4.3. The Freedom of Information Act 2000 The Act requires us to make information available to the public unless specific exemption(s) apply. The Code of Practice issued under section 46 of the Act sets out rules on how we should manage records and information, including responsibilities on all staff to implement records retention and disposal schedules.
4.4. The Local Government Act 2000 Section 22 of the Act requires that written records of a local authority executive, or a committee of such an executive are to be made available to the public.
