DISCIPLINARY PROCEEDINGS - 22.09.2022

Disciplinary proceedings: when must records be destroyed?

The Acas Code

You are expected to follow the Acas Code of Practice on Disciplinary and Grievance Procedures (the Code) as far as is reasonably practicable.

The foreward to the Code says that employers would be “well advised” to keep a written record of any disciplinary (or grievance) cases that they deal with. So, what information should these records contain?

Keeping records

The Code itself doesn’t provide an answer or give any suggested format as to how these written records should be kept.

However, the non-statutory Acas Guide , which supports the Code and provides best practice advice, says that the employer’s written records in relation to disciplinary proceedings should include:

• the complaint against the employee
• the employee’s defence
• the findings made
• the actions taken
• the reason for actions taken
• whether an appeal was lodged by the employee
• the outcome of the appeal
• any grievances raised during the disciplinary procedure
• subsequent developments; and
• notes of any formal meetings.

Confidentiality requirements

This data must be kept confidentially and can either be held on the employee’s personnel file or put into a separate disciplinary file.

The employee is entitled to request any information that you hold and should be given certain documents in any event, e.g. the notes of any formal meetings.

Data protection

Once a disciplinary warning has expired, all of the relevant paperwork should be removed from the employee’s personnel or separate disciplinary file and securely destroyed. That’s because under the Data Protection Act 2018(DPA) personal data must not be kept for any longer than is necessary for the purpose for which it was obtained.

There are no set time periods laid down in law with regards to the expiry of disciplinary written warnings. However, Acas advises that, as a matter of good practice, a written warning should expire after six months and a final written warning after twelve months, unless a longer period is justified.

Tip. Even though the original disciplinary paperwork should be destroyed to comply with the DPA , there’s nothing to stop you keeping an employee disciplinary record which briefly summarises all disciplinary action that’s been taken against an individual - we’ve created one that you can use (see The next step ).

Tip. As this historical information can be relevant to future misconduct, an employee’s disciplinary record document like ours does not breach data protection laws.

For an employee disciplinary record, visit https://www.tips-and-advice.co.uk , Download Zone, year 24, issue 17.