'Routine destruction' – Document management plumbs new depths

Next time the auditors come round, or even the nice man from HMRC wanting to check your paperwork, just mention the words ‘routine destruction’ and with a knowing nod and wink, they’ll be gone, no questions asked. No names, no pack drill. Precedence, in law, is a strong basis for many legal decisions, so my learned friends tell.

So it may come as some surprise, nay, abject horror, to read this – http://snipurl.com/hzwv5 – ongoing case of apparent document mis-management where it would appear, prima facie and without prejudice m’Lud, that paperwork filed in the course of one’s duty, one’s contracted fiduciary executive, are no longer seen as necessary to prove one did what one said one did, spent what one said one spent, was where one said one was, and all the rest of those honourable truisms that a screwed-up and shabby piece of paper proves. No, nay, never: no nay never, no more.

So if we assume this is the accepted precedent, then why should not all parties shred themselves stupid with gay abandon and party like it’s 1999 all over again? It’s all par for the course in some quarters, so it would appear.

Or does the old chestnut double standard of one-rule-for-them, another rule-for-everyone else apply? “Do as I say, not as I do”? I hear you chime in unison. Well, so it would appear. And let’s face it, we all used to think ‘Golden Shred’ was just a fruity breakfast preservative. Slap it on thick and hope nanny doesn’t notice.

Well looks like, after vigorous legal attempts to block prevailing Freedom of Information requests, the cat is out of the bag when it comes to official ‘records management‘. If CDs in the post, laptops on trains, memory sticks in the back of taxis isn’t enough to satisfy you that data content security isn’t a key issue, then perhaps the practice of shredding recent official receipts incurred and waved away as ‘routine destruction’ and ‘incompetence not intent’ just about does it.

Paul Quigley,
Editorial Director