Can an outgoing clerk/chair legally delete all records from their time in those roles

Question

Is it legal for an outgoing clerk/ chair to delete the entire records and emails for the period that they held both roles? Our outgoing clerk/chair has deleted the records in entirety from the time they were holding both roles with our village parish council, including records that are currently the subject of a FOI request with the local district council

Answer 1

I would say no, an outgoing Clerk or Chair cannot legally delete all records from their time in office. Parish councils are subject to the Local Government Act 1972 and the Freedom of Information Act 2000, which require the proper retention of council records.

Answer 2

No! the documents and records are the property of the council not the clerk who has no permission from the council to do so unless there is an agreed retention of documents period requirement specified by council vote.

Answer 3

I'm not sure what you mean by an FOI request with the local district council, but deleting anything that is, or might be, part of an ongoing FOI request from a member of the public is a criminal offence.

Comments

There is currently a FOI request being dealt with by the district council pertaining to a code of conduct complaint against the chair/clerk, they stepped down to avoid sanctions as the complaints were going to be upheld by the monitoring officer, part of the deleted files pertain to these complaints so the DC will not be able to gain access to these because they have been deleted.

Answer 4

The answer is no - but….

Of course they shouldn’t  but if they have there may not be much to be done about recovering them. 

I know that a clerk of 20 years service threatened an Ind Trib for questions from a new Cllr (me) since he felt they ‘undermined his authority.’

When presented with the counter threat of a fraud investigation he unilaterally arranged for the forensic wipe of PC IT equipment and did a moonlight flit. 

QED on that one….