Rank: Super forum user 
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Do any of you have a formal policy as to how long DSE assessments should be retained?
I realise that if we applied a risk based approach, we would keep the ones indicating problems for longer than the ones which don't.
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Rank: Forum user
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We keep risk assessments for 10 years presume this applies to DSE.
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Rank: Super forum user
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Hi Chrissie
Thanks for the reply. Over 150 hits on this thread and an almost silent response to a Q which will be relevant to almost every organisation that our members work for!
P
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Rank: Super forum user 
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Have you spoken with your insurers?
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Rank: Forum user
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3 years is norm for most companies for risk assessments, DSE, etc (probably because you only have 3 years after an incident or issue to claim!) with health assessments being the exception of sometimes around 40 years.
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Rank: Forum user
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Hi,
Just covered this sort of thing in the NCRQ Cert in Personal Injury Liability. I think as this relates to potential long-term ill-health it should be for about 40 years. Although a claim needs to be lodged within 3 years of knowledge, the harm / breach of duty could have occurred many years previous to this. And actually, those assessments that showed NO issues would be equally important when a claim comes in - not just those that show there is a problem. Apparently this retention is justified under DPA - as needed to demonstrate legal compliance and in defence of potential future civil claims. This includes after they have left employment too.
The message seems to be to act in a proportionate way - if you have a handful of people with a few hours per day DSE usage the likelihood of a civil claim is quite low so probably not worth the effort of longer-term filing and retention, but if you have offices of computer-based staff the effort of a system (or folder!) to retain this information (which should be minimal!) would be reasonable.
Hope this snippet is helpful! The NCRQ HSD2 Cert is really useful for this sort of stuff!
Peter
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Rank: Super forum user 
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Isn't it 3 years from when you discover an injury / issue which may be some time after an event or set of circumstances.
I didn't reply to OP because I was not sure if you had say a bad back etc in later life, could that be put down to poor DSE arrangements ? Therefore you may want to keep records a long time. But as I said not sure.
People make some funny claims! In a previous employment I had someone claim he could not play the piano or pick up small change due to working for the company for less than a year using vibrating tools in 1965! We struggled to confirm he worked for us, never mind what he did.
Chris
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Rank: Super forum user
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peter80 wrote:Hi,
Just covered this sort of thing in the NCRQ Cert in Personal Injury Liability. I think as this relates to potential long-term ill-health it should be for about 40 years. Although a claim needs to be lodged within 3 years of knowledge, the harm / breach of duty could have occurred many years previous to this. And actually, those assessments that showed NO issues would be equally important when a claim comes in - not just those that show there is a problem. Apparently this retention is justified under DPA - as needed to demonstrate legal compliance and in defence of potential future civil claims. This includes after they have left employment too.
The message seems to be to act in a proportionate way - if you have a handful of people with a few hours per day DSE usage the likelihood of a civil claim is quite low so probably not worth the effort of longer-term filing and retention, but if you have offices of computer-based staff the effort of a system (or folder!) to retain this information (which should be minimal!) would be reasonable.
Hope this snippet is helpful! The NCRQ HSD2 Cert is really useful for this sort of stuff!
Peter
Other qualifications are available :-)
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Rank: Super forum user
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Thanks for replies.
I'm currently taking the view that if we get sued in 2056 and can show that we had a verified process in place in 2016 (and thereafter) and that that process was such as to demonstrate mitigation (rather than exacerbation) of issues, it would be very unlikely that a claim would succeed, whether or not we had retained every single assessment.
We've got 6000 staff in the UK and Ireland, with annual online reassessments, so we're potentially looking at a very large amount of storage capacity!!
Our global policy is only to archive e.g. bridge designs for 25 years.
40 years where evidence of exposure to asbestos and other carcinogens etc, but for DSE assessments?
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Rank: Super forum user
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I used to keep them until the filing cabinet was full and then I'd dump the oldest records to make space for more of this stuff.
Happy Friday
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Rank: Super forum user
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Peter that seems a sensible approach. We keep ours five years. However as I said I think it would be very hard for a claimant to claim any ailment they had could be completely attributable to DSE issues. If you can also show you had systems in place as you say, I would find it hard to believe they would be successful.
If you did want to keep some records perhaps just the very first and last one during their employment.
Chris
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Rank: Forum user
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Agree entirely Chris. I decided on 40 years as they are all electronic so no effort at all to retain them. If they were paper of needed to be kept in an archive I think 5 years or so is quite sensible. Need to weigh up cost of a successful claim (and associated costs) against the chance of that happening and cost/effort to keep them. Our local authority has a history of DSE claims by staff, so worthwhile to keep them to nip the claims in the bud.
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Rank: Forum user
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Hi. Peter, from a legal perspective, a claimant can bring a claim in negligence up to 3 years from the date of any injury (except for children) and for health issues, up to 3 years after the date when the illness/disease ought reasonably to have been detected. It would be reasonable to expect any DSE health issues to have surfaced within 3 years and so, adding a factor of safety, I would suggest that keeping records for 5 years would be reasonable.
I hope this helps.
Regards.
DJ
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