Storing and destroying Disclosure documents
The CRB/SCRO Code of Practice requires that Disclosures are stored in a locked cabinet separately from other personnel files and only accessed by the minimum number of people; all of whom are directly involved in making the decision whether the individual concerned should be placed in the role offered.
The CoP also forbids any photocopying, faxing, extracting or scanning of Disclosures and even requires that any notes taken that refer directly to Disclosure content are destroyed immediately after use.
The documents themselves should only be retained until the placement decision has been made and then destroyed securely. The guidelines say that this should take no longer than 6 months, though for some CSCI regulated organisations 12 months is acceptable to allow the document to be seen at the next inspection visit.
DDC's standard process is to retain Disclosures in accordance with the CoP for 3 months (unless the requests that we do so for longer) or 12 months for CSCI regulated organisations, then shred them and incinerate the shreddings.
Should there subsequently be a legal requirement to re-create a Disclosure as at the time of issue, the CRB can do this based on the document number and issue date. (They store a digital image of the original document issued so the replacement will reflect that and not the records at the time of issue - which could in theory be different)