Criteria used to determine the retention period of your personal information

At Victim Support we ensure that personal information is not kept for longer than necessary. Normal retention period criteria for personal information are as follows:

  • Where a potential service user’s personal information is referred to Victim Support, contact is made but no service is taken up, any personal information is normally retained for 12 months
  • Where it has not been possible to contact the potential service user any personal information is also normally retained for 12 months

Service user personal information is normally retained for 6 years after last contact. Exceptions include:

  • Where there is a reason that would be acceptable in law to retain the information for longer (this may particularly be the case for children’s records in some instances)
  • Where statutory commissioners of the services Victim Support provides require in their contract with Victim Support for such information to be retained for longer (extending the retention period to between 7 and 12 years)​​
  • Complaints records are retained for 6 years after the last entry in the complaint record
  • Live chat information relating to service delivery is retained for 6 years
  • Web form information relating to service delivery is retained for 6 weeks
  • Employee and volunteer records are held for 6 years after the individual has left Victim Support
  • Personal Information about people that enquire or apply for employment with Victim Support or to volunteer with Victim Support but are not successful/do not take forward their application is deleted within 6 months
  • Most accounting and finance related documentation is retained for 6 years or where applicable 6 years after the end of the contract to which it relates. Some accounting and finance related documentation however is retained for longer in line with legal and widely accepted best practice
  • Any personal information that relates to marketing will not be retained for longer than 2 years without getting renewed consent from the individual the personal information is about