What is Record Retention?

  • HR Policies Documentation
Retention HR Records
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Peninsula Group, HR and Health & Safety Experts

(Last updated )

Retention of HR records for UK businesses is required by law, but keeping files for too long can lead to large fines. Find out how long to keep your HR files with our guide.

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The law requires employers to keep HR records on their staff. These records will include personal information, payroll data, among other things.

UK legislation requires employers to hold on to this information. But GDPR makes keeping employee files complicated and holding records for longer than there is a business use can result in considerable fines.

So how long do employers have to keep employee records after termination? In this article we’ll cover record retention, employee files and data protection rules.

How long to keep personnel files in the UK?

Legislation sets out the length of time to keep employee records. The government calls this a statutory retention period.

The statutory retention periods for documents in the UK differ depending on the type of record.

If you don’t know how long to keep training records, you might think that they have little use after an employee leaves your company. These records can be helpful in court cases.

For example, if an employee leaves your business and has an accident at their new job. A record of the training they’ve received can help the employee’s defence in a legal dispute.

However, many HR records contain sensitive information, such as employee’s personal details, and keeping documents for longer than they are useful can put those employees at risk.

Statutory HR data retention periods

There are different guidelines for how long to keep personnel files in the UK. The statutory period depends on the length of time that the records could be of use to the business or in legal proceedings.

For example, medical records relating to hazard materials need to be held for 40 years. This is because illnesses related to exposure can take a long time to develop.

The full list of statutory retention periods can be split into different categories.

Health & safety and training records

Medical records

Financial records

General employment records

The list of statutory retention periods doesn’t cover all types of documents you may have.

Other common types of HR documents you will need to consider are: CCTV footage, pension records and employee references.

It’s up to the employer to decide what is best for the other types of files. Though there isn’t a statutory limit, keeping accurate records can help in the event of a legal challenge.

As many legal proceedings have a six year time limit for making a case, it’s recommended that you set a personnel records retention period of six years for anything that might be relevant to a contractual claim.

Employee records and GDPR

When the government introduced GDPR in 2018, they implemented new rules regarding the retention of HR records.

The rules mean that employers can only hold personal data for as long as there is a business need, and give employees more rights regarding their data.

Those rights include:

Law states you should make any previous employees aware of the information you hold on them, and can request to see this information.

Where they don’t think there is a reason for you to have the information, they can request you

One other key difference regarding retention of HR records under GDPR is the penalties you can face for not complying.

Since Brexit, the penalties differ slightly depending on whether the data refers to personal data for UK or EU residents.

The UK GDPR rules set a maximum fine of £17.5 million or 4% of annual global turnover - whichever is greater. EU GDPR rules are very similar but the maximum fine is €20 million (about £18 million) instead.

Expert support

Peninsula offers expert advice on storing HR records. Our teams provide 24/7 HR advice which is available 365 days a year. We take care of everything when you work with our HR experts.

Want to find out more? Contact us on 0800 028 2420 and book a free consultation with an HR consultant today.

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