Posted By Gavin Gibson Nigel You are correct in that claims have to be registered within 3 years of the incident, but it is actually within 3 years of the victim becoming aware of the incident, rather than within 3 years of it happening. Thus, for noise, radiation, asbestos, or other survey data you are loooking at a 50 year archive. For incident investigations you are looking at 3 years - they are probably aware of when they were hit by the falling rock, etc. You could consider simply archiving on to an electronic medium, eg DVD or CD, but you must ensure that that the appropriate equipment is also stoored to retrieve it. How would you get to all your data from 20 years ago on 5" floppy discs? Remember that paper records dumped in a store room will probably be thrown away unless they are listed and an owner identified.

Posted By John Webster Be aware that, in Scotland at least, the 3 year rule is not bindng, and courts are becoming increasingly lenient in allowing claims to proceed when the triennium has expired. I am now keeping all accident reports and associated documentation for at least 5 years.

Posted By Dave Wilson Nigel, Forget the legal aspects of keeping records with regards to H&S. Why do we keep these? In essence to fight any future claims as to what happened and what the circumstances were at the time - how were the company managing safety at the time? If you ask an insurance company they will tell you never ever throw anything away as you do not know what it will be like in the future! Problem then is how do you do this?