Disposition

Review rather than deletion#

The most requested feature in records management is automatic deletion at the end of a retention period. It is also the one worth resisting. Retention periods are judgements about legal exposure made years earlier, and a timer that destroys records will eventually destroy one that turns out to matter.

More fundamentally, an automated deletion cannot evidence who authorised it. "The system deleted it" is not an answer to a regulator, and it is the answer an automated schedule forces you to give.

What a defensible disposal leaves behind#

A record of the disposal itself: which records, under which schedule item, authorised by whom, on what date, and confirmation that no legal hold was in force at the time. In the public sector a destruction certificate is often mandatory and retained permanently — the evidence outlives the records it describes, deliberately.

Transfer as an alternative#

Not every expiry means destruction. Records of enduring value are transferred to an archive, which is a disposition action in its own right and is how governance and decision records are usually treated. A schedule with only one disposition action is usually under-specified.

Who authorises a disposal#

Someone with authority, named, and not the person who created the record. Separating those two is the control that prevents a document being quietly disposed of by whoever finds it inconvenient, and it is a distinct permission from the ability to delete an individual file.