Off-site record storage

The Information Governance Office (IGO) manages a limited off-site storage service for University records. We are using Iron Mountain, a recognised external storage provider. The cost of the off-site storage element of the service is met centrally while the cost for retrievals and returns is met by the relevant area of the University that owns the records. Details of records that are required to be transferred to storage should be sent to the IGO after which the IGO will arrange for Iron Mountain to collect the records directly from the record owner.

Please note: the IGO can only accept semi- and non-current records for storage. Semi-current records are those records which are still required to be kept but are rarely needed for day-to-day business.

How to place material in off-site storage

1. Order boxes as you would stationery. You need boxes that are D400mm x W350mm x H265mm +/- 20mm. The weight of each box should not exceed 8kg for Health and Safety reasons. 

2. Record the box contents on the Iron Mountain Collection Template spreadsheet. Fill out columns G, H, I, J, K and M.  We strongly advise completing column M with as much detail as possible; if insufficient detail is included you may be asked to provide more.  However, it is important to stay within the character limit recorded otherwise the data won’t upload. Please note: It is essential that a retention date for the records is provided. Ask the IGO for advice if you are unsure of retention periods. Records without a retention date or records with a short retention date will not be accepted for storage.

3. Once you know how many boxes you have, email confidential.waste@manchester.ac.uk to request the same number of Iron Mountain stickers which we will post to you. Once you have received these:

• complete the customer ID on the sticker as EMD93
• stick the stickers on the side of your boxes
• record the sticker number into columns B and C of the spreadsheet (IMC Template)
• retain the smaller barcode sticker for your own records

4. Send the completed spreadsheet to confidential.waste@manchester.ac.uk along with a note of (i) the record owner, (ii) department and (iii) faculty. This is to ensure that in the event of staff leaving/retiring, we can trace the records back to a relevant contact.  We strongly advise that you keep a local copy of the record as well.  You should also include a note of where the boxed records are to be collected from (building, room number etc.) and provide contact details (name and number) for a member of staff who will be present on the day, if these are different to your own.

5. Once this is all completed and verified, the IGO will arrange for the boxes to be collected. Iron Mountain generally work to a 24-hour service level agreement so usually collect the day after a request is raised. Please let us know if a specific date is required.

6. Regularly review your arrangements for keeping track of the data within your team, department, faculty etc. especially when key role holders change. Please note: records may automatically be destroyed (or transferred into the University archive if appropriate) once they reach their retention date unless record owners contact the IGO prior to this date asking for the retention date to be renewed.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact the team: confidential.waste@manchester.ac.uk.