Appendix II Retention schedule: Birth, death and adoption record

This appendix sets out the retention period for different types of birth, death and adoption records relating to health and care. Where indicated, Appendix III should also be referred to. This sets out further detail relating to the management of specific types and formats of records.

Birth notification to child health

Record type	Birth notification to child health
Category	Birth, death and adoption record
Retention period	25 years
Disposal action	Review and destroy if no longer required
Notes	Retention begins when the notification is received by the child health department. Treat as part of the child’s health record if not already stored within the health record

Birth registers

Record type	Birth registers*
Category	Birth, death and adoption record
Retention period	2 years
Disposal action	Review and consider transfer to PoD
Notes	Where registers of all births that have taken place in a particular hospital or birth centre exist, these will have archival value and should be retained for 25 years and offered to the local PoD at the end of the retention period. Information is also held by the NHS Birth Notification Service electronic system, and by ONS. Other information about a birth must be recorded in the care record

Body release forms

Record type	Body release forms*
Category	Birth, death and adoption record
Retention period	2 years
Disposal action	Review and destroy if no longer required

Death – cause of death certificate counterfoil

Record type	Death – cause of death certificate counterfoil*
Category	Birth, death and adoption record
Retention period	2 years
Disposal action	Review and destroy if no longer required
Notes	These detail the name of the deceased and suspected cause of death (which initially may be different to the final cause of death as stated on the official death certificate). A death notification certificate is issued if a doctor is satisfied there is no suspicious or unexpected circumstances surrounding the death, and the counterfoil retained by the setting that issued the initial cause of death certificate (which is used to obtain the full death certificate from a registrar of births, death and marriages). Cases referred to the coroner would not be able to issue a certificate as the cause would be unknown. These are unlikely to have archival value.

Death - register information sent to the general registry office on a monthly basis*

Record type	Death - register information sent to the general registry office on a monthly basis*
Category	Birth, death and adoption record
Retention period	2 years
Disposal action	Review and consider transfer to PoD
Notes	A full dataset is available from ONS

Local authority adoption record

Record type	Local authority adoption record (usually held by the LA)*
Category	Birth, death and adoption record
Retention period	100 years
Disposal action	Review and consider transfer to PoD
Notes	The local authority Children’s Social Care Team hold the primary record of the adoption process. Consider transferring to PoD only if there are known gaps in the primary local authority record, or the records pre-date 1976. Also refer to Appendix III: adoption records.

Mortuary records of deceased person

Record type	Mortuary records of deceased person
Category	Birth, death and adoption record
Retention period	10 years
Disposal action	Review and consider transfer to PoD
Notes	Retention begins at the end of the year to which they relate

Mortuary register

Record type	Mortuary register*
Category	Birth, death and adoption record
Retention period	10 years
Disposal action	Review and consider transfer to PoD

NHS medicals for adoption records

Record type	NHS medicals for adoption records*
Category	Birth, death and adoption record
Retention period	8 years or 25th birthday
Disposal action	Review and consider transfer to PoD
Notes	The health reports will feed into the primary record held by the local authority. This means that adoption records held in the NHS relate to reports that are already kept in another file, which is kept for 100 years by the relevant agency or local authority. Consider transferring to PoD only if there are known gaps in the primary local authority record or the records pre-date 1976. Also refer to Appendix III: adopted persons health records

Post-mortem records*

Record type	Post-mortem records*
Category	Birth, death and adoption record
Retention period	10 years
Disposal action	Review and destroy if no longer required
Notes	The coroner will maintain and retain the primary post-mortem file including the report. Hospital post-mortem records will not need to be kept for the same extended time period as subject to local policy these reports may also be kept in the medical file.