§ Mr. MorganTo ask the Secretary of State for Health when the five-year rule for keeping and destroying departmental file records was introduced; if he will now review its usefulness; if the five-year rule applies to the departmental solicitors' records; what representations he has had from the National Audit Office concerning the destruction of five-year-old records; when the records pertaining to the extra-statutory payments for general practitioner fundholders' management allowances were destroyed; and if he will make a statement. [27070]
§ Mr. MaloneSince the 1960s the guiding principle for Government record keeping is for Departments routinely to review the need to retain records once their business use has ceased. This is set out in detail in the Public Record Office's "Manual of Records Administration", a copy of which is in the Library.
Following a thorough review of departmental records management in 1995–96, all important Department of Health information is kept for at least two years and the need to keep it is reviewed when it is between two and five years old. These procedures apply to all departmental records including those for departmental solicitors.
No representation have been received from the National Audit Office on this issue.