How long do you have to keep employee records in the UK?

There isn't one answer, which is exactly why this trips people up. Different records carry different retention periods, set by different rules, and none of them are grouped anywhere convenient.

Payroll is three years. Minimum wage is six. Right to work runs from when someone leaves, not from when they started.

Here's the whole picture in one table, then the detail underneath, then the part almost nobody thinks about — the records you're supposed to delete.

The short answer

Now the detail that matters.

Payroll and PAYE: three years, and a £3,000 reason to get it right

You have to keep records of what you pay people, the deductions you make, the reports and payments you send HMRC, employee leave and sickness absence, tax code notices, taxable expenses and benefits, and any Payroll Giving documents.

The period is three years from the end of the tax year they relate to.

The bit worth reading twice: if you can't produce complete records, HMRC "may estimate what you have to pay and charge you a penalty of up to £3,000" (source: GOV.UK — PAYE and payroll: keeping records). That's not a theoretical compliance risk. That's an estimated bill, plus a fine, because a folder went missing.

Minimum wage: six years, and it must be one document

This is the retention period most small employers get wrong, because it changed. Records created on or after 1 April 2021 — and any that were still required on 31 March 2021 under the old three-year rule — must be kept for at least six years.

The records must be sufficient to show you've paid at least the minimum wage: total pay including deductions, allowances and tips, and total hours worked including absence and overtime.

And there's a requirement people miss entirely. You must be able to produce the records for a single pay reference period in a single document (source: GOV.UK — Employers and the minimum wage). Not "we could pull it together from the rota, the timesheets and the payroll export." One document, on request.

That single sentence is the strongest argument for a proper system that exists in UK employment law. If your hours live in one place and your pay lives in another, you cannot satisfy it without an afternoon of work — and HMRC can turn up unannounced.

Underpaying the minimum wage is a criminal offence, and so is faking the records.

Working time: two years, even if you think it doesn't apply

The Working Time Regulations require employers to keep records "adequate to show" whether they've complied with the weekly working time limit and the night work limits, and to retain those records for two years from the date on which they were made (source: Working Time Regulations 1998, regulation 9).

The format is up to you — the regulations say records may be created, maintained and kept "in such manner and format as the employer reasonably thinks fit", and you don't have to log every worker's daily hours if you can show compliance another way.

The common mistake is assuming this only applies to night shifts or factories. It applies to the weekly limit too, which means it applies to almost everyone. If you want to check your own rota against the limits, our working time and rest checker does it in about a minute.

Right to work: employment plus two years, and the date is part of the check

Keep copies of the documents you checked during the person's employment and for two years after they stop working for you (source: GOV.UK — Check a job applicant's right to work).

Two details that catch people:

• The copy must be one that cannot be changed — a photocopy or scan, clear enough to read. For passports, copy any page showing the expiry date and the holder's details, including endorsements such as a work visa.
• You must record the date the check was made. A document copy with no date attached is not the check the rules describe, and it is the most common defect.

Get it wrong and you could face a civil penalty for employing someone without a valid check.

Pensions: six years, and four for opt-outs

Automatic enrolment records — names, National Insurance numbers, dates of birth, qualifying earnings, contributions, enrolment dates, scheme references, postponement notices — must be kept for six years.

The exception is opt-out notices in their original format, which must be kept for four years. They must be legible, or capable of being provided to the regulator in a legible format (source: The Pensions Regulator — Keeping records).

Holiday: no separate rule, but the calculation is where it goes wrong

There's no distinct statutory retention period for holiday records. Keep them with your payroll records, since they feed the same numbers.

The risk here isn't retention, it's accuracy. For leave years beginning on or after 1 April 2024, irregular-hours and part-year workers accrue holiday at 12.07% of the hours they actually work in each pay period (source: GOV.UK — Holiday pay and entitlement reforms).

If you employ anyone whose hours vary and your holiday sits in a spreadsheet built for fixed-hours staff, the figure you're recording is probably wrong — and you'll be keeping that wrong figure for the full retention period. You can sanity-check your own numbers with our holiday entitlement calculator before it reaches a payslip.

The bit nobody plans for: what you must delete

Every article on this subject tells you what to keep. Almost none mention the opposite duty.

Under UK GDPR, personal data must be "kept in a form which permits identification of data subjects for no longer than is necessary for the purposes for which the personal data are processed", and must be "adequate, relevant and limited to what is necessary" (source: UK GDPR, Article 5).

In practice that means:

• Keeping everything forever isn't the safe option. It's a different kind of exposure.
• Disciplinary records have no statutory retention period. You keep them while you have a live reason — an ongoing process, a limitation period on a possible claim — and not indefinitely by default.
• You need to be able to find and delete a specific person's data, which is close to impossible if it's spread across a shared drive, three inboxes and a filing cabinet.

The uncomfortable version: a folder called Old staff 2015-2019 that nobody has opened in six years is not diligence. It's personal data you can no longer justify holding.

A five-minute audit you can do today

1. Pick someone who left eighteen months ago. Can you produce their right to work check, with the date it was made, in under five minutes?
2. Pick a single pay period. Can you produce hours and pay for everyone in one document?
3. Pick your most recent variable-hours starter. Was their holiday accrued at 12.07% of hours worked?
4. Open your oldest personnel folder. Can you say what purpose you're still holding it for?

If any of those took longer than five minutes, the problem isn't discipline. It's that the records live in places that were never designed to be searched.

Keeping this straight without a filing cabinet

Everything above has one thing in common: it assumes you can find a specific record, for a specific person, on a specific date, quickly — and that you know when to let it go.

That's the actual job. Not "having" the records, but being able to produce them and retire them on schedule. A shared drive can hold documents; it can't tell you that a right to work check is missing its date, or that a leaver's file passed its retention point last March.

HR Henry keeps employee records, holidays, absence and policy acknowledgements in one place, with the holiday maths — including the 12.07% calculation — done for you. If you want to see what that looks like day to day, have a look at the features, or read why your records matter when things go wrong.

Frequently asked questions

How long should I keep records for an employee who has left?

It depends on the record, not on the person. Payroll for three years after the tax year, minimum wage records for six, right to work for two years after they leave. Personnel files only while you have a reason to hold them.

Do I have to keep paper copies?

No. Records can be kept digitally, provided they are legible, unalterable where that is required - right to work copies in particular - and you can produce them when asked.

What happens if I cannot produce payroll records?

HMRC may estimate what you have to pay and charge a penalty of up to £3,000.

How long do I keep minimum wage records?

At least six years for records created on or after 1 April 2021, and you must be able to produce a single pay reference period's records in a single document.

Is there a single retention period for all HR records?

No, and treating it as one number is how employers end up either short on a statutory period or holding data they can no longer justify.

Can I just keep everything forever to be safe?

No. UK GDPR requires personal data to be kept no longer than is necessary for the purpose it was collected for. Indefinite retention is its own compliance problem.

Sources

All checked 31 August 2026.

• GOV.UK — PAYE and payroll for employers: keeping records
• GOV.UK — The National Minimum Wage: employers and the minimum wage
• Working Time Regulations 1998, regulation 9
• GOV.UK — Check a job applicant's right to work
• The Pensions Regulator — Keeping records
• GOV.UK — Holiday pay and entitlement reforms
• UK GDPR, Article 5 — principles

This guide sets out statutory retention periods and is not legal advice. Where a specific situation is unclear, take advice.