Document Retention

Hi
Does anyone know where I can find any form of document retention policy?
Trying to have a clear out…

What type of documents?

That would mean somebody making a decision on policy.

Our wing has said we cannot keep any documents with personal information in them or ACPs. This included 3822a forms of our current cadets until I reminded them that we must keep these. They must be in a locked cabinet (which my parent station won’t provide (no money apparently)).

We were told that we either upload everything to SMS (somehow!) or send to WHQ for archiving. We are not even allowed to shred our own documents and must post them to WHQ. Later we were allowed to keep 1st class logbooks as they were running out of space!

Of-course, all of this is completely unworkable and I’m not sure if it’s a national policy.

That’s funny 3822A are supposed to be held by wing 3 months after they leave the squadron until 25th birthday - but my wing said they had no space so I need to keep them.

We send TG forms to them, but I scan & email to save postage.

My wing were originally saying we couldn’t keep them for our current cadets as they contained personal information!! I explained to them how ridiculous this was. We are supposed to send the forms to them after that.

There was a thing a few years ago requiring us to register specific locations (filing cabinets for example) that were used for secure storage of personal data.

You chaps keep paper records? Interesting!

Yea, what else are we to do with the F3822A’s?

Describe the purpose of this form.

The primary purpose is for me to find out what a cadet looks like without needing to log in to Bader :wink:

The F3822A is the initial joining form, with home details and parental consent.
Once the Bader record is created it probably serves no purpose on the unit and could be sent to WHQ for archiving (or scanned and uploaded) but it is generally retained on the unit. If a cadet transfers it goes to the receiving squadron.

Edit:
ACTO4 states:

Cadet Record of Service Form (RAF Form 3822A). This form is to be maintained for every cadet in the Sqn. Sqn Cdrs are to obtain the consent signatures of the person with parental responsibility and are then to file and hold the forms at Sqn HQ. This is a legal requirement.

Parental consent, with the parents signature.

I can create a record for 13 year old Timmy down the street, but that doesn’t prove his parents have consented :wink:

Ah I get you. From an ACF point of view, technically the forms (we use the AFE 529) are supposed to be destroyed once the cadet is added onto Westminster, as requirements of personal data is it is kept up to date, and people just don’t edit the forms when something changes, they edit Westminster which is the “primary” record. It is the Westminster record that is retained for the appropriate period under the data protection act.

So what proof do you retain that the cadet is authorised to participate?

When the record is created, there is a checkbox to tick that they have been given permission.

That doesn’t sound like a credible audit trail.

[quote=“incubus, post:16, topic:2936”][quote=“talon”]
When the record is created, there is a checkbox to tick that they have been given permission.[/quote]

That doesn’t sound like a credible audit trail.
[/quote]

I refer to my earlier comment re Timmy down the street.

I am sure the legal beagles have look at it. To be fair, the consent isn’t there as proof of ongoing consent, it is there to prove to you, the person accepting the cadet and putting the data on the system, that the parent has actually given them permission to join. You are then confirming you have seen this by ticking the appropriate boxes on the entry form. A parent is still within their rights to change their mind at any point anyway, at which point the cadet simply stops training. As far as I know there is nothing stopping you from keeping these forms, but if you do they must be kept up to date with any changes just like the online record (and stored securely of course!).

How long would you keep a consent form for a weekend camp?

Just remember that I have no clue what your personal data handling policies actually are, I can only comment on the ACF and CCF(A).

We’d keep it for as short a time as possible before passing it on to wing HQ for long-term storage. Our camps manual (ACP237) says that they then retain it for 3 years from the end of the camp (or from when the cadet turns 18, if longer), after which they are destroyed.

I have heard more complex versions, including time after incidents or periods of up to 100 years.
I believe we retain the aforementioned 3822A forms until their 25th birthday (or 7 years after leaving) whichever is longer.

Another difference I guess. We would destroy them after the camp. Unless there has been some kind of serious incident on the camp, there really is no reason to retain them.