Hi Jospeh,

Yes the 75 year rule only applies to Looked After Children (LAC). It was brought in under regulation as part of the Children Act reforms. Prior to the regulations retention was limited to 3 years after last contact .

Reg 9 of the Arrangement of Placement of Children (General) Regulations 1991, provides:

9.—(1) A case record relating to a child who is placed shall be retained by the responsible authority until the seventy-fifth anniversary of the date of birth of the child to whom it relates or, if the child dies before attaining the age of 18, for a period of 15 years beginning with the date of his death.

(2) The requirements of paragraph (1) may be complied with either by retaining the original written record, or a copy of it, or by keeping all of the information from such record in some other accessible form(such as by means of a computer).

Interestingly the new Scottish regs have increased retention to 100 years from DoB.

Regards,

Tom Devenish
Records Manager
London Borough of Camden

Lucy,
I believe that the retention you mentioned is more accurate than what the LGCSR states. I am fairly certain that the LGCSR is incorrect in many areas, especially in records relating to children. It seems that the retention of 75 years from DOB or if person died before aged 18 then 15 years from date of death has been used as a blanket retention period for most records relating to children.

The legislation that provided this retention is

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