Privacy Notice

Sandwell Council’s Retention Policy sets out the information held by the Council, and how long the associated records should to be held for. Sandwell MBC’s retention schedule has been developed and aligned with the recommendation and best practice of the Records Management Society of Great Britain, legislative recommendation, other local authorities, best practice, relevant code of practice and in certain instances record weighting against the statute of limitation in England and Wales.

Please see the councils retention policy for more information.

UK Covid-19 Inquiry

The UK Covid-19 Inquiry has been set up to examine the UK’s response to, and impact of, the Covid-19 pandemic and learn lessons for the future. The Inquiry will examine, consider and report on preparations and the response up to and including the Inquiry’s formal setting-up date of 28 June 2022. Bodies exercising public functions, including local authorities (which includes Sandwell Council), are required to comply with the Inquiry. They must:

“ensure that a full and clear record of their part in events exists, is accessible, and that they apply a precautionary principle by retaining all material that could be relevant”

Under section 35 of the Inquiries Act 2005 it is an offence to alter, destroy or prevent relevant documents from being provided to the Inquiry. Documents that may be relevant to the Inquiry, considering the Inquiry’s Terms of Reference, must be securely retained and kept accessible in case they need to be disclosed to the Inquiry.

As such some of the personal information we hold will need to be kept longer than the stipulated retention periods set out in the retention schedule.

Once the Inquiry has been completed and authorisation has been given by the Inquiry, records will be deleted in line with the retention periods stipulated within the retention policy.