Retention Schedule

With such a range of different documents governed by such a variety of different legislation, it can be difficult to know how long your organisation needs to retain an individual file in storage, and the reason for keeping it. For instance, do you need to keep asset registers for as long as personnel records? Is it a legal requirement to keep copies of purchase orders?

In the linked retention schedule pages below, we provide a handy guide to how long you will need to retain and archive different types of document.

Please note that the information provided by CAS in the tables below is for guidance purposes only. Whilst every effort has been made to ensure that the details provided here are accurate, CAS accepts no liability for any errors or discrepancies.

For each category of document (e.g. Admin, Health & Safety), we have outlined the specific type of document to be archived. For each type of document, we have provided a minimum retention period, and the reason for retaining these documents for this minimum period.

Reasons for retention:

• Audit – you may need to supply these documents to an external auditor during an annual audit process
• Corporate – you will need to retain these documents for management purposes within your organisation
• Legal – you may be called upon to provide these documents, as there is specific legislation which governs the retention of these documents for the specified minimum period (e.g. the Data Protection Act 1998; Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 etc).

We hope you find our document storage guidelines for different categories of document helpful. If you would like any further advice, please do not hesitate to speak to one of the CAS team on 0845 50 50 003.