Outcome
Information provided.
Request and response
How long are emails with the .gov.uk suffix kept for, as in duration?
Regarding the corporate business data of The National Archives, our retention schedules are format neutral. This means there is no single schedule for .gov.uk emails; how long these are kept depends on their subject matter and the schedule to which they are assigned. Our retention schedules are below.
| Schedule Name | Disposal Description |
| 01 Advice & Guidance – Standard level | Destroy 2 years after superseded date |
| 02 Advice & Guidance – High level | Destroy 7 years after superseded date |
| 03 Appraisal Administration | Destroy 20 years after appraisal completion date |
| 04 Appraisal Decisions | Permanent Preservation 20 years after appraisal completion date |
| 05 Business Planning & Performance – Departmental and low level corporate | Destroy 5 years after superseded date |
| 06 Business Planning & Performance – High level corporate | Permanent Preservation 20 years after superseded date |
| 07 Communications | Destroy 5 years after end of year |
| 08 Complaints | Destroy 10 years after end of year |
| 09 Contacts & Stakeholder Management | Destroy 0 years after when business need ends or out of date. |
| 10 Departmental Administration – Annual | Destroy 2 years after end of year |
| 11 Departmental Administration – Ongoing | Destroy 2 years after superseded date |
| 12 Enquiries – General archive and research | Destroy 1 years after end of year |
| 13 Equipment & Maintenance | Destroy 1 years after end of equipment use |
| 14 Finance & Budgets | Destroy 6 years after end of financial year |
| 15a Corporate Information Requests under FOI, DPA and EIR | Destroy 10 years after when request complete |
| 15b Archival Information Requests under FOI, DPA and EIR | Permanent Preservation 20 years after when request complete |
| 16 Licences | Destroy 7 years after license expiry date |
| 17 Ministerial Papers | Transfer 20 years after end of year |
| 18 Personnel Administrative Transactions | Destroy 7 years after end of year |
| 19 Personnel Records | Destroy 100 years after when staff leave |
| 20 Policy – Supporting documentation and non-key | Destroy 5 years after superseded date |
| 21 Policy – Key final | Permanent Preservation 20 years after superseded date |
| 22 Procurement & Contracts | Destroy 6 years after end of financial year or end of contract |
| 23 Projects – Informal internal | Destroy 2 years after end of project |
| 24 Projects – Full | Review 0 years after end of project |
| 25 Research and Academic Liaison – Administration | Destroy 3 years after end of year |
| 26 Research and Academic Liaison – High level | Destroy 20 years after end of year |
| 27 Systems – ICT | Destroy 5 years after end of system use |
| 28 Training | Destroy 3 years after end of year |
| 29 Time category 0 | Destroy 0 years after no longer current |
| 30 Time category 2 | Destroy 2 years after no longer current |
| 31 Time category 5 | Destroy 5 years after no longer current |
| 32 Time category 10 | Destroy 10 years after no longer current |
| 33 Time category Permanent | Permanent Preservation 20 years after no longer current |
| 34 Site Documentation & Major Health and Safety Reports | Destroy 7 years after end of building use or occupation |
| 35 Environmental Impact Assessments | Destroy 7 years after end of building use or occupation |
| 36 Asbestos | Destroy 50 years after end of building use or occupation |
| 37 Recruitment | Destroy 2 years after appointment of person |
Additionally, our corporate information management policy includes this section on email:
Do not use MS Outlook as a private archive. There is a standard 300MB quota for all user accounts; a larger quota may be granted by the KIM Team if there is business need. All ‘sent’ emails over 12 months old, and all calendar items over 24 months old, will be automatically deleted from the system: this is to ensure overall data volume is kept manageable. So store any emails which need to be kept for long term business use or for accountability purposes in the relevant part of SharePoint — but do not import emails wholesale and without structure e.g. ‘January’s emails’. Delete any emails not needed for long term retention, or not required in Outlook for short term business use.
And, if I were to request any data concerning emails with the .gov.uk suffix, who or where should I put any FOI request or SAR to? As in a government department or an address etc.
A request should be based on whichever government department prefaces the gov.uk suffix. For instance, if it was cabinetoffice.gov.uk requests should go to the Cabinet Office and if it was mod.gov.uk requests should go to Ministry of Defence. There is guidance at https://www.gov.uk/make-a-freedom-of-information-request. To request such data held by The National Archives, please submit a request through our form at https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/contact-us/make-a-freedom-of-information-enquiry/.