Employment tribunal

EMPLOYMENT TRIBUNAL

RECORD RETENTION AND DISPOSITION SCHEDULE

Government Departments, Agencies, and all other public sector bodies, are instructed to retain any and all documents; correspondence; notes; e-mails and all other information – however held – which contain or may contain content pertaining directly or indirectly to the sexual abuse of children or to child protection and care. For the purposes of this instruction, the word “children” relates to any person under the age of 18.

NO	DESCRIPTION	TNA Series	ACTION
1	Case Files (Heard and Determined)		In most instances files that have an outcome of 1-9 on the Ethos case management system (i.e. any electronic records that have been marked ‘disposed’) should be retained for 12 months and then destroyed. The 12 months should run from the date that the relevant judgment/equivalent was sent out. The exception to this is cases which have been appealed. Where an appeal has been lodged and accepted by the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT), the case file should be retained for 2 years 6 months from the date of the Employment Tribunal’s judgment was sent to the parties unless the appeal process has not been completed.
2	Ethos records		Archived from live database 12 months after date of decision if not appealed. Archived from live database 30 months after date of decision if appealed or when appeal concluded, whichever is the latter. Records on the archive database should be deleted 12 months from date of archive.
3	Tribunal Bundles		One unmarked and complete bundle should be kept with the file for 3 months from the date the final judgment was sent to the parties. All other bundles (with the exception of the Judge’s copies) should be returned to the parties at the end of the hearing or destroyed if they are no longer required by the parties. If the member’s copies have been marked with comments they should be destroyed and not returned to the parties. Where an appeal has been lodged and accepted by the Employment Appeal Tribunal the bundle should be retained until all legal proceedings have been completed
4	Judgments retained on the Public Registers [England & Wales and Scotland]		Retained for 6 years from the date of Judgement and then archived.
5	IT 57s		Record of attendance for Fee-paid Judiciary, panel members and parties – retained for 7 years
6	Daily Cause Lists		Retained for 1 year
7	Finance records (purchase orders, invoices GPC records etc)		Retained for 7 years
8	Audio recording of judgments		Retained for 6 months
Obsolete Records
9	Hardcopy Ledgers listing cases started, and outcomes.		Superseded by electronic listings. Retain till 10 years after date of last entry then destroy.

NB In respect to those items which are financial in nature, it is a requirement that the supporting documentation is retained for the same length of period as the item itself.

This schedule takes account of any electronic documents whose creation was discussed in its preparation. These documents are either printed out and copies placed on registered paper files or held as electronic records and noted in this schedule. Please inform DLRMS when any new electronic documents or systems are introduced into the operations of the Employment Tribunal.

The MoJ Departmental Record Officer has drawn up this schedule in consultation with the Employment Tribunal. Please retain for future reference.

Departmental Records Officer

Departmental Library and Records Management Services

Ministry of Justice

1st Floor, 102 Petty France

London

SW1H 9AJ

Amended: July 2016