Office of the Saskatchewan Information and Privacy Commissioner. Guide to LA FOIP, Chapter 6, Protection of Privacy. Updated 27 February 2023. 296 6. Keep up with retention schedules Establishing records retention schedules is an excellent first step in developing a RIM strategy, but to be fully effective, the schedules must be implemented and followed. As a starting point, train all staff on how to apply retention schedules to their records. This is particularly important for records management personnel who will be responsible for maintaining the records and ensuring that they are appropriately handled at the end of their lifecycle. Once implemented, staff will need to periodically review holdings to find records that have exceeded their retention period and can be disposed of. Any records that are not accessed regularly can be moved to offsite storage where they are retained until they are eligible for disposal. Detailed inventories of records must be maintained. Records must be disposed of in accordance with the applicable records retention schedule following a well-established and well-documented disposal process. The following tips can help your organization keep up with retention schedules and ensure that records are destroyed or archived properly. 1. Maintain detailed record inventories that include the dates the records are eligible for disposal and the appropriate schedule designations. This will allow records management personnel to quickly see which records have exceeded their retention period and what the next steps will be. 2. When large volumes of records are meeting their retention period at the same time, schedule reminders for staff. 3. Schedule regular record clean-up. This could be a large annual event or a smaller weekly task. Determine what kind of schedule works best and ensure that you keep up with the required schedule. 4. Identify transitory records and non-records and ensure they are destroyed in a consistent and regular manner. Remember that records may be responsive to access requests if they are in the possession or control of the local authority. When staff are conducting reviews, it is important to remember that any records that are responsive to a request or subject to a litigation hold must not be destroyed. Ensure that staff consult with your local authority’s RIM, legal and access to information departments before destroying records.
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