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Documentation

Volume 454: debated on Wednesday 6 December 2006

To ask the Secretary of State for Health what systems are in place within her Department to prevent the unintended destruction of documentation. (100632)

The Department continues to implement well established policies and procedures for managing documents and files in accordance with its administrative needs and the Public Records Act.

The Public Records Act requires staff to identify documents arising from their work that should form part of the official record. These are saved for as long as business needs require and stored corporately in accordance with departmental record management procedures.

Once documents have been stored in corporate record keeping systems they are protected from unintended destruction by system controls, clear guidance on managing records, and a strong audit trail. Electronic records are further protected by regular data backups.