Preparing for destruction of records

When should destruction take place?

Once all the requirements for retaining original paper records have been assessed and fulfilled, the original paper records are ready for destruction.

However, destruction should not take place immediately.  

For quality control purposes, the original paper records should be kept for a period of time determined by your organisation. This allows quality checks of the images and provides an extra safeguard in case of loss of digital images in the copying or registration process.

Determining an appropriate period for retaining originals

Your organisation must decide on the appropriate period to retain originals for quality control.

State Records NSW recommends a minimum retention period of 6 months. For low-risk records this may be reduced to 1 or 3 months.

This period should take into account the:

• level of assurance that full and accurate records have been created
• level of assurance that digital images are being well managed in a recordkeeping system
• robustness of digitisation processes, including quality assurance processes
• level of assurance that the records' authenticity is being maintained (determined through results of QA processes)
• need for access to the original paper record for other purposes such as legal proceedings.

This assessment should be:

• based on an understanding of your own digitisation and recordkeeping processes
• suitable for the type of business to which the records relate
• determined in consultation with relevant business units.

Where original paper records are destroyed, the digital images must be retained for the records' full retention periods, as required in the relevant retention and disposal authority.

Secure methods of destruction

For information about the secure destruction of original paper records and digital images, see Destruction of records.