Each Department must have a retention schedule governing their records. The Records Management Service provides the professional expertise to carry out a detailed information audit and record survey necessary to identify all records held by a Department and to produce an accurate retention schedule. For an example of the Records Management Service form used to compile relevant information see Appendix 3. All Departments will need to have such a survey carried out by the Records Management Service in order to enable checks to be made on duplication, compliance with retention legislation, storage capacity and ensure that due consideration is given to the long term value of any record series. The absence of a comprehensive list of all related documentation exposes the Council to the risk of prosecution. This issue is of particular concern where more than one Department is involved. For example Social Services have their own adoption files, as does Legal Services. Vital information could easily be missed unless the individual member of staff dealing with a particular matter was aware of the existence of more than one file in more than one format within more than one Section/Division/Department.

Experience indicates that following a records survey, probably one-third of documents currently held will be disposed of, one-third identified as semi or non current records that could be held in the Council's records storage facility, with only a third remaining as active records required for regular use within the Department.

Once undertaken, the records survey needs to be kept up to date together with any associated retention schedule produced as a result of it. A review of the retention schedule should take place on an annual basis in order that modifications can be made to take account any redistribution of functions between Divisions and Sections, and any changes in record keeping practices.

A detailed survey and retention schedule for all Birmingham City Council Departments will provide the following information and benefits:

A filing system is a collection of structured information, retained in any format (paper/film/electronic) and used to carry out the business of the Council. All information used to conduct the City Council's business, and supplied to other organisations and individuals must be recorded in a filing system.

Although responsibility for the naming of manual files and file series lies with the relevant Division or Section of each Department, the corporate File Cover Sheet must be used (Appendix 4). A similar system needs to be adopted for electronic records. In practice, this information would appear on the cover of paper files and the start of electronic and filmed files. This format has the advantage of identifying all the information at the time at which the file was created. It also enables monitoring to take place on the frequency of access that can then be used to review whether the file is still active or should be moved to the Records Centre.

The method of filing information needs to be decided within each Division but must be consistent, suitable for the use, and capable of quick retrieval. The concept of centralised filing, within Divisions or individual Sections, for an active file is recommended. This helps prevent duplication of records and will also improve filing and retrieval, and file control and security.

All new files should be created with the need to avoid duplication in mind, and to ensure consistency with the Divisional/Sectional filing. All file covers should show to whom the information belongs, the subject, retention information and file activity as described in 4.2.2.

It is therefore important to standardise the series title e.g. creditors, invoices, planning applications, street repairs etc. It is only after this has been done that more detail can then be inserted to aid retrieval e.g. Week 1-2 2000, 15 Somerfield Road etc.

In order for files to be inter-linked or to be cross-referenced to a main file a structured directory needs to be put in place. An example of such a directory is shown in Appendix 5. A similar structured directory and file-referencing system also needs to be put in place for electronic records. The Records Management Service can provide professional guidance on such filing directories.

Confidential records such as personnel and payroll files will continue to be held by individual personnel and payroll teams. Whilst there would be special arrangements with regard to the location and accessibility of confidential information, the broad standards used would be no different.

It is recommended that information be clearly marked with a date and signature and be filed in date order. Papers must be secured within the file cover and not loosely inserted. Use should be made of punched plastic wallets or sub files in order to prevent any loss of information.

Electronic information must be labelled and located in an appropriate folder. Microforms should not be left lying on desks but should be filed in an appropriate container with a suitable index.

For retention, destruction and archiving purposes, all record formats are treated under the same rules.

Each Division must develop a disaster recovery plan to protect records, reduce the impact of any disaster and ensure information can be recovered. In the case of electronic records, there will be a need for duplicate hardware and software. Action to be taken should be based on a thorough business risk assessment.

Responsibility for storage rests with each Division. This may be centralised by floor/location or through the use of the corporate Records Centre depending on the frequency of use of records. It is not acceptable to use any other storage accommodation away from the main office location, and particularly in areas also used for the storage of furniture and equipment. The storage of documents requires improved conditions in terms of security (protection from unauthorised access and the threat of arson), and physical conditions (protection from environmental extremes and the correct storage equipment to permit effective and safe retrieval of information). Detailed guidance on the procedures to be followed when transferring records to the Record Centre is available in the Records Management Terms of Reference document.

For current records stored in situ in offices, it is important to remember that records could cause accidents by falling out of shelves or from the tops of cupboards. Accidents can also happen because papers and boxes are left on the floor, and by employees trying to lift heavy boxes and in the wrong manner. Even electronic storage can cause problems if not used in the correct manner. Advice should be sought from the RMS with regard to storage of records in offices and managers should also undertake risk assessments in line with current Health and Safety legislation. The advice of the Departmental Safety Officer should also be sought in order to minimise accidents.

Review dates should be used for weeding purposes and not for procrastination or a way of avoiding responsibility for action. It is not good practice to continually amend the review date to one in the future.

All records produced electronically should be backed up on a regular basis. Microform used as a backup medium has a number of advantages. It has a very long life span, is the cheapest form of storage for those documents that have to be kept for longer than 7 years, ensures file integrity when carried out according to the relevant British Standards, and is fully accepted in a court of law. These come in many formats and discussion with the RMS is recommended to determine the most appropriate format to be used. Wherever possible, the original paper should be destroyed after filming unless the record series is of archival significance in which case it may be appropriate to transfer the originals into permanent storage.

Document imaging should be considered if there is a need to:

All electronic document management systems should have a bolt-on electronic records management facility to store electronic files in a controlled manner. The disposition of these files will be governed by the proposals in the retention schedule in the same way that paper records are. Such an electronic records management system will preserve the content, structure, and context of electronic records. It must also ensure that authentication procedures and audit trails are put in place. This will in turn permit these records to be used as legal evidence, improve corporate accountability and assist Departments in meeting the requirements of internal and external auditors. Because these records management issues permeate all aspects of systems implementation, it is vital that the Records Management Service and the ITC strategists, planners and providers liaise closely together to ensure that records management concerns are incorporated and safeguarded within all appropriate information and record keeping systems.

In any new automated system, microfilm copy may still be needed where there is a long-term storage need and especially for information that is intended for the City Archives. This is because the hardware to read the disk version may not be available in years to come whereas it will still be possible to read a microfilm in a hundred years time and for the foreseeable future. The Records Management Service is undertaking research on the feasibility of storing electronic records intended for long term preservation and ultimately public access.

E-mail and information stored on a PC and used to facilitate the performance of Council work is a corporate asset and a critical component of the Authority's communication systems. Such information may therefore be used in a court of law in the same manner as information stored on paper and microfilm.

For these reasons the information should be dated and assigned a responsibility i.e. it should show its author. Because an e-mail system is a messaging medium and not a storage system, messages should be regularly reviewed and regular transfers of key messages and supporting documents should be stored in an electronic records management storage system.

In order to ensure that the storage medium is acceptable in a court of law and carries the same weight of evidence as the original paper version all microforms should comply with the appropriate British Standard (BS 1153: 1975). For this reason the use of an external microfilming or document imaging bureau should not be considered without consulting the Records Management Service.

Electronic storage should follow the recommendations of PD0008 - A Code of Practice for Legal Admissibility and Evidential Weight of Information Stored on Electronic Document Management Systems (Revision 1 1999) and issued by the British Standards Institute. BSI has issued a workbook to complement the Code of Practice. Completing this will assist in identifying those parts of the Code that must be complied with.

All information must have an access category that will determine the level of protection from unauthorised viewing and usage. There are four categories.

Records must be retained and disposed of according to the Departmental retention schedule.

Information no longer required must be destroyed in the following manner:

There are a number of records that have archival value, irrespective of the medium on which they are stored. These could include records that contain historical/ genealogical/ local history and social science information that may be of use to future historians or researchers for the study of social, economic and political issues. There are also records that the City Council needs to keep in order to provide evidence and justification for its actions in the past. Examples of these include:

Information that has been identified as being worthy of permanent retention in the City Archives: for paper/microfilm records in offices it is recommended that these documents be transferred to the Records Management Service as soon as possible after they have ceased to be of any immediate administrative use to the Department concerned. The Department will not be charged for the storage of these records and they will be passed to the Public Services Team in the City Archives for permanent storage. If these records comprise part of a continuing series of documents e.g. Committee minutes, then the retention schedule will specify the transfer of these documents at set times e.g. current plus one year to be held in office, then transfer to Records Management Service and permanent storage.

In some circumstances, the archival value of a series of records will be uncertain and can only be determined by detailed appraisal of the record series by a qualified archivist/ records manager when the records are no longer of any administrative significance. A charge will be made for this professional appraisal work but once the items are transferred to the City Archives, no further charge will be made (see 4.6.2).

Retaining whole series of records would be high on space usage in City Archives and for some record series it may be necessary to sample e.g. building control plans. This would always be done with the agreement of the Department concerned and no destruction would take place before this agreement was secured.

In the case of electronic records that have been identified as being worthy of permanent retention, the Department concerned will need to consult with the Records Management Service as to the most acceptable format in which this should take place.