Destruction is the last step in the management of a Commonwealth record that is not a national archive.

A Commonwealth record can only be destroyed after it has been sentenced using an approved Records Authority and reached its identified destruction date. For more information on sentencing records and which authorities to use, see Sentencing records.

Destruction is the last step in the management of a Commonwealth record that is not a national archive.

If you intend to destroy a Commonwealth record, you need to make sure that it has been sentenced correctly. You may need to review the sentence to make sure that it has been applied appropriately. If the record was sentenced on creation or sentenced and then held for a time, you should make sure that:

• no information that does not fit that sentence has been added to the record  
• circumstances have not changed so that a non-controversial issue has become controversial or is of public interest, meaning your agency should keep records due for destruction for a longer time
• the record is not affected by a disposal freeze

Once you have decided which records need to be destroyed you should note this decision in your control records. Control records are those kept to help manage other records, like file indexes and registers. When you do this, you should also note the destruction process you plan to use. This process can be used to demonstrate that you have sentenced and destroyed your records accountably.

To destroy a Commonwealth record you must make it unreadable and irretrievable.

Physical records

Methods for destroying physical records such as papers, photographs and films include:

• pulping
• burning 
• shredding

You should review the guidelines in the Commonwealth Protective Security Manual to determine the appropriate destruction method for your agency’s records, according to a risk-based review of their security requirements.

Electronic records 

Deletion is not destruction and does not meet the requirements for destruction of Commonwealth records. In electronic systems, records are not destroyed when they are ‘deleted’. What is destroyed is the pointer to the record (eg the file name and directory path) that tells the operating system where a particular piece of data is held on the medium. The actual data objects are gradually overwritten in time by new data. However, until the data is completely overwritten there remains a possibility that the information can be retrieved.

Methods of destroying electronic records include:

• digital file shredding
• degaussing (ie the process of demagnetising magnetic media to erase recorded data)
• physical destruction of storage media (eg pulverisation, incineration or shredding)
• reformatting may also be used as a method of destruction if it can be guaranteed that the process cannot be reversed.

To ensure the complete destruction of an electronic record, all copies should be found and destroyed. This includes removing and destroying copies contained in system backups and offsite storage.

For more information on appropriate methods of destruction for electronic records and associated media formats, see the Commonwealth Protective Security Manual and the Australian Government Information Technology Security Manual. The decision of how to destroy your electronic records should be based on a risk assessment.

Make sure you destroy records securely. Never leave records at the local tip, as they may be retrieved by someone else, without your knowledge. Never sell records, even if they would otherwise have been destroyed. When you destroy records, ensure that you are there to see the destruction carried out or can receive a report that guarantees the work has been completed.