training-record-retention

---
name: training-record-retention
description: Sets the actual retention period for each kind of employment and training record a hospitality venue holds, because the law does not set one single answer: working time records run two years, National Minimum Wage records run six, right to work copies run two years from the leaver date, and everything else is governed by the ICO's instruction to justify the period rather than copy a number from a blog post. It works out which rule applies to which document and flags anything kept past its date or deleted before it. Use when a filing cabinet or a shared drive has training and employment records going back further than anyone can explain, and before you delete something the law required you to keep.
---

# The retention date set from the rule that actually applies, not a round number

You give this the record type, the date it was created, and for leavers, the date they left. You get back the retention period that actually applies to that record type, the date it may be reviewed or deleted, and a flag for anything already past that date still sitting on file, or deleted before its time.

## What it does

1. **Set working time records to the period the regulation actually states, not a guess at "a couple of years".** Regulation 9 of the Working Time Regulations 1998 requires employers to "keep records which are adequate to show whether the employer has complied with the limits" on working time, and sets the period explicitly: "retain such records for two years from the date on which they were made." Rota and working hours records are dated against this rule, counted from the date the record was made, not from the worker's leaving date.
2. **Set National Minimum Wage records to six years, because the three-year figure most owners remember is out of date.** Regulation 59(8) of the National Minimum Wage Regulations 2015 originally set three years. The National Minimum Wage (Amendment) Regulations 2021 changed this: "In regulation 59(8) ... for 'three years' substitute 'six years'", effective "1st April 2021", and the six-year period applies to records created after that date and to records an employer was already required to hold immediately before it. Pay records tied to NMW compliance get the six-year marker, not the shorter figure a template downloaded years ago may still show.
3. **Set right to work document copies to the period the Home Office's own guidance sets, tied to the leaver date, not the creation date.** GOV.UK's guidance on checking a job applicant's right to work states employers must "keep copies during the applicant's employment and for 2 years after they stop working for you." This is the only retention rule in this skill measured from when someone leaves rather than from when the record was made, and the skill marks it as such so the two are never confused.
4. **Treat everything else as a judgement call the ICO expects the employer to make and justify, not a fixed number to copy.** The ICO's "Employment practices and data protection: keeping employment records" guidance, published 5 February 2025, does not prescribe fixed retention periods for general employment records; it expects the employer to set and justify a period based on business need and any specific legal duty that applies to that document. For training records with no statutory retention period of their own, fire and manual handling training among them, the skill records a justified period set by the owner rather than inventing a number the ICO's own guidance deliberately leaves open.
5. **Never apply one rule across record types that have different ones sitting in the same file.** A single personnel file commonly holds a rota printout (two years, from creation), a pay record (six years, from creation), a right to work copy (two years, from leaving), and an induction sign-off sheet (no fixed statutory period, owner-justified). The skill dates each document in the file on its own rule rather than retaining or deleting the whole file on one date.

## Then it checks

1. Every working time record has a retention date set at creation date plus two years, and nothing is deleted before that date.
2. Every NMW-related pay record created after 1 April 2021 has a six-year retention date; any created before that date and still held is flagged for a six-year check from its own creation date, per the Regulations' transitional wording.
3. Every right to work document copy has its retention date set from the leaver date, not the hire date, and current employees' copies are marked as held with no deletion date yet.
4. Every other training record has an owner-stated retention reason attached, never a blank "keep forever" or an arbitrary number.
5. No record of any type is found deleted before its applicable retention date.
6. No record past its retention date is still held without a documented reason for extending it.

Any check fails: name it, redo that step once. Failed twice: say what is wrong and stop.

## Rules
- Public information only.
- Never invent a fact, a number or a quote.
- Anything sent in someone's name says whose name it is.
- Never give data protection advice on a specific disputed retention decision; it applies the published rule, it does not resolve a subject access request or a dispute.
- Never apply the six-year NMW period to a document that is not pay-related, and never apply the two-year right to work period to anything other than right to work document copies.
- Never state a fixed retention period for a record type the ICO's guidance leaves to the employer's own justification.

## Built from
- Working Time Regulations 1998, regulation 9, https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1998/1833/regulation/9, read 4 November 2026: the two-year-from-creation retention period behind step 1.
- National Minimum Wage Regulations 2015, regulation 59, as amended by the National Minimum Wage (Amendment) Regulations 2021, https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2021/329/made, in force 1 April 2021, read 4 November 2026: the six-year period behind step 2.
- GOV.UK, "Checking a job applicant's right to work", https://www.gov.uk/check-job-applicant-right-to-work, read 4 November 2026: the two-years-from-leaving period behind step 3.
- Information Commissioner's Office, "Employment practices and data protection: keeping employment records", published 5 February 2025: the no-fixed-period, justify-the-retention position behind step 4. The ICO's own page could not be fetched directly (403 response, 4 November 2026); this position is confirmed instead from multiple independent professional summaries of the same guidance. See SOURCES.md for detail.

# training-record-retention

## You are given
A list of records held: `record_type` (one of `working_time`, `nmw_pay_record`, `right_to_work_copy`, `other_training_record`), `record_date_created`, `staff_name`, `employment_status` (`current` or `leaver`), `leaver_date` where applicable, and for `other_training_record`, the owner's stated retention period and reason. A current date to check against.

## Produce
Write into a `./training-record-retention-output/` folder:

1. `retention-register.csv` with columns: `row_ref`, `record_type`, `staff_name`, `record_date_created`, `employment_status`, `leaver_date`, `retention_basis` (semicolon-free short name: `WTR_1998_reg_9`, `NMW_2015_reg_59_as_amended`, `RTW_gov_uk_guidance`, `owner_justified`), `retention_date`, `status` (`within period`, `past retention date - review`, `deleted before retention date - flag`).
2. `retention-date-calc.csv` with columns matching the rule used: for `working_time`, `retention_date` = `record_date_created` + 2 years; for `nmw_pay_record`, `retention_date` = `record_date_created` + 6 years; for `right_to_work_copy`, `retention_date` = `leaver_date` + 2 years where `employment_status` is `leaver`, otherwise `not applicable - still employed`; for `other_training_record`, `retention_date` is the owner-supplied date, copied verbatim with its stated reason in a `reason` column.
3. `gaps.md` - a numbered list of: every row with `status` of `past retention date - review`; every row with `status` of `deleted before retention date - flag`; every `other_training_record` row with no owner-supplied reason; and every `right_to_work_copy` row for a leaver with no `leaver_date` supplied.

## Rules
- Codex counts and computes dates. It never sets a retention period for `other_training_record` itself; that period and its reason are supplied by the owner and copied, never invented.
- `retention_date` is calculated only by the rule matching `record_type`; a working time record is never given the NMW period or vice versa.
- A `right_to_work_copy` with `employment_status` of `current` always gets `not applicable - still employed`, never a calculated date.
- Use British English, GBP and DD Month YYYY dates. No em dashes in any file you write.
- Every file ends with this line: this is a working document prepared for the owner to check against their own records, and for their solicitor or data protection adviser to check any disputed retention or deletion question. It is not legal or data protection advice.

## Return
The absolute path of each file written and the row count of each CSV. The number of records past their retention date, named individually with their type and how far past. The number of records flagged as deleted too early. The number of `other_training_record` rows with no stated reason. The `gaps.md` item count.