Retention & Deletion: Keep It Only as Long as You Need It
Included with TrainMeUK — no separate course purchase required.
Use a retention schedule, delete every copy securely, and push back on keeping data “just in case”.
- Assign to
- Records owners and practitioners
- Duration
- 32 minutes
- Evidence
- 12-question quiz
- Your version
- Editable
What they will be able to do
- Explain the storage limitation principle.
- Use a retention schedule to decide what to keep.
- Delete or anonymise every copy, and record it.
- Say no to “keep the lot”, with a better plan.
The course
- 01Why it matters
- 02Using the schedule
- 03Deleting properly
- 04Holding the line
The decision they practise
In the main activity, “Label the boxes”, learners rewrite a realistic document line by line and see the effect of each choice. In “Keep the lot”, a face-to-face conversation, learners practise what to say and do when the other person pushes back. The wrong options are things a well-meaning person might genuinely say, and the feedback explains why each one is tempting. Short animations show “The life of one candidate’s CV” and “How ‘deleted’ data comes back”.
How you know they finished
The 12-question quiz mixes multiple choice, matching and sequencing questions and returns to the opening story.
Roll it out with
Relevant legislation and guidance
The course draws on these. Which ones apply depends on the organisation and the role. Finishing the course is a training record.
- UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018
- Data (Use and Access) Act 2025
How this course is built
Interactive activity
Learners practise the decision in the course, including what to say when someone pushes back.
Edit it in the builder
On Growth and above, adapt the scenarios and wording to your own workplace, policies and reporting procedures.
A record they finished
The 12-question quiz closes the course, so you can show who completed it.
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