Departmental Data Protection

Norman Baker
To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster what period of time elapses before his Department's electronic records are (a) archived and (b) destroyed; and what percentage of such records created in (i) 2007 and (ii) 2008 have been destroyed.

Mr. Watson
Cabinet Office records are maintained in an electronic records management system and will either be (i) transferred to The National Archives in line with our statutory obligations, or (ii) deleted from the system in accordance with disposal and retention schedules currently being developed. No formal records were deleted in 2007 and 2008 although duplicates and user training examples were routinely removed.