Does a Town Council have to destroy its recorded meetings?

Question

My parish council uses its standing orders to justify deleting it's own youtube videos of meetings once the minutes have been approved. "..draft minutes or recordings of meetings for which approved minutes exist shall be destroyed."

 Is that a legal requirement?

Answer 1

The short answer is no.   There is no obligation to destroy self made recordings. The SO quoted is from NALC model standing orders and these can be varied as the council sees fit, apart from those in bold which contain statutory requirements. . That said, there is no obligation for a town/parish council to make audio or video recordings of its meetings either..  Any recordings that are retained might hold personal data so due attention to the principles of GDPR should be taken.

Answer 2

As Graeme_r quite rightly states, the recordings will consist of personal data belonging to those captured on the images and as such, this information must be held and processed in accordance with council's Data Protection Policy and/or Privacy Policy, which should have been in place prior to capturing any images since the council are a data controller.

The council must understand that the images essentially belong to the data subjects and not the council.  Ideally, the council should have undertaken a data subject consultation process or alternatively a DPIA before capturing any images.

Comments

My understanding is that GDPR does not apply assuming people are given proper warning about the meeting being recorded because it’s then their choice
Why are so many Councils terrified of openness and accountability

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Residents who speak at meetings may inadvertently disclose sensitive personal data, for example  explaining how a specific medical condition impacts on them at Public Question time.  The council needs to be prepared to deal with that.

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The GDPR will always apply to any activity of a public authority which encompasses personal data.