ICO guidance, storage limitation: what an employer keeps when an employee leaves (Information Commissioner's Office, 'Principle (e): Storage limitation')
When staff leave, and in a closure everyone leaves, the employer keeps what references, pensions and similar duties need and deletes the rest of their personal data.
Dated 31 Oct 2026Source checked 31 Oct 2026Basis: primary text
Selling a company's data? This is one of the rules a sale has to meet, and the guide beside the button reads it in plain words.
- No data upload
- About two minutes
- No email needed
In the source's own words
“An employer should review the personal data it holds about an employee when they leave the organisation's employment. It will need to retain enough data to enable the organisation to deal with, for example, providing references or pension arrangements. However, it should delete personal data that it is unlikely to need again from its records”
Where it was read
Figures it counts in
It is shown on its own, not counted into a figure.
Cited in this guide