Description
• Following the declaration that County Hall is surplus to the current needs of the Council, all remaining assets, services & functions operating from the County Hall site have been identified for disposal / relocation and this includes the physical records currently held in the Record Office building, managed by the Corporate Information Governance Team (CIGT).
• The records held by CIGT comprise records created across the whole Council and include:
• Legal files
• Deeds and agreements
• Adult and Children’s Social care records
• Highways, planning, development control, environment
• Employee records
• Funding and grant programme records
• Building and property files
• To ensure compliance with statutory obligations and best-practice standards, the Council seeks to appoint a contractor to provide secure, efficient, and cost-effective off-site storage services with retrieval, destruction, and related support.
• Physical records are currently managed through a combination of the FileTrack records management system, locally maintained spreadsheets, and a suite of documented processes, policies, and standards. All boxes and oversized items are assigned a unique barcode identifier linked to FileTrack, enabling location control, audit trails, and retrieval management. Individual files within boxes are only barcoded if they have previously been requested, enabling accurate re‑filing back into their originating container.
• Retention and disposal activities are governed by the Council’s Disposal Schedule, which is complex due to the broad range of services the Council delivers and the diverse types of records it creates. The schedule sets out minimum retention periods based on legislative obligations, statutory guidance, and operational needs. When the contents of a box reach the end of their retention period, CIGT initiates a review by contacting the relevant Data Owners. Disposal decisions may result in destruction approval, extended retention, or—in some cases—individual file‑level reviews where mixed content exists.