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I think it is important to stress that there is no definitive right way or wrong way to handle these "local management files". From how you have described them, I would not regard them as "corporate records" in the sense that the business needs to keep them as corporate evidence of activity. They fall into the category of information that is needed by users to get on with their jobs. The first step is to identify where you wish to keep such information - either as part of the "corporate storage" or outside in local structures under local control. If under local control, this may result in some duplication but the costs of this duplication are probably cheaper than the cost of trying to maintain corporate control. If you have examples of material held by most departments, then this probably should be stored centrally. These days I would try and encourage such information to be held electronically rather than in physical form. Encourage this by restricting the amount of physical storage space available and enforce this restriction. Search tools can help users to find the information they need. The next step is to find a simple way to enforce some form of retention schedule for this information. My experience suggests that most items kept in this way do not need to be kept that long. Usually there are a few items which are used for longer periods, possibly these can be identified and held separately. On the slightly separate issue of management items within the LGCS - as Paul Dodgson has indicated, I believe it is important to see the LGCS as the starting point, not a finished item that can be directly applied to a local authority. Linking retention guidance to the LGCS will help to increase the value of the LGCS, but will also probably highlight some of its weaknesses and identify where it can be improved. As has been correctly pointed out, the "internal" functions of all organisations (HR, IT, Finance, Facilities Management) tend to be largely similar. Richard Jeffrey-Cook Managing Director In-Form Consult Ltd [log in to unmask] www.inform-consult.com