Version 2 · Effective 2026-08-05
These are draft operational periods and must be confirmed against actual accounting, insurance, food-safety, employment and legal requirements. Information may be kept longer where a complaint, legal claim, regulatory investigation, recall or fraud concern requires it, with access restricted.
| Record type | Draft period | Reason / action |
|---|---|---|
| Enquiries not converted to a booking/order | Normally 12 months after last meaningful contact | Follow-up, service improvement, defence of complaints; remove sooner on justified request |
| Customer account | While active; review after 24 months of inactivity | Account service and security; delete/anonymise when no longer needed, subject to transaction records |
| Orders, bookings, quotations and contract confirmations | Normally 6 years after fulfilment/cancellation | Contract, tax, accounting, complaints and legal claims |
| Payment and refund records | Normally 6 years | Accounting, fraud prevention, audit and legal obligations |
| Allergy/dietary operational data | Active until fulfilment and incident window; remove from routine operational views within 90 days where no longer needed | Safe fulfilment; retain a restricted record longer only where documented for complaint, claim, traceability or legal requirement |
| Supplier, recipe, batch, receipt and traceability records | At least the period required by food-safety, tax, contract and recall needs; OWNER/ADVISER TO CONFIRM | Traceability, recall, costing and legal compliance |
| Website security and authentication logs | Normally 12 months, adjusted to risk | Security, fraud prevention and incident investigation |
| Audit logs for privileged actions | Normally 6 years or longer where required for regulated traceability | Accountability, dispute evidence and security |
| Cookie consent records | Duration of the consent plus a reasonable evidence period, normally up to 2 years | Demonstrating consent and preferences |
| Customer-service messages and complaints | Normally 6 years after closure for material complaints; shorter for routine messages | Resolution, learning and legal claims |
| Unsuccessful job or contractor applications | Usually 6 months unless consent for longer | Recruitment defence and follow-up; separate staff policy required |
| Test data | Remove or archive before public launch | Development only; must not contaminate production reporting |