Day 121 - 04 May 95 - Page 58
1 wore red socks on Thursday you would not be cross-examining
2 him on, "Two Thursdays ago I saw you wearing blue". It has
3 to be of some relevance to a point. If, honestly, you have
4 forgotten what it was just move on to something else.
5
6 MS. STEEL: We will check it over.
7
8 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes.
9
10 MS. STEEL: How long are crew records kept for?
11 A. I have enquired into this. The personnel department
12 are now advocating that they should be kept for seven
13 years. What happened beforehand varied from region to
14 region, store to store. A lot of it depended upon the
15 capability of the store to keep records. Managers' offices
16 are very small, and the current crew records are kept in a
17 normal filing cabinet, a metal one, and to keep their
18 current crew records available they tend to dispose of the
19 old ones as soon as the drawers underneath are full and
20 that can vary from store to store. Now some stores----
21
22 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Just stop again, because I do need to know
23 where we are going now with the records.
24
25 MS. STEEL: I would have thought it was quite obvious actually.
26 It is about discovery basically.
27
28 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Yes, but what about discovery? What is it
29 that ----
30
31 MS. STEEL: About crew records. For some amazing strange reason
32 there do not appear to be any records of any of the
33 incidents that we have ----
34
35 MR. JUSTICE BELL: Why not ask Mr. Nicholson about crew
36 records. Put the crew records which you have been told are
37 not there and ask him if that accords with what he would
38 expect or not, or ask him some question directed at a
39 problem which you think you have.
40
41 MS. STEEL: I wanted to know how long they are generally kept
42 for. For example, we were talking about Mr. Gary Davis
43 this morning. That was only two years ago and yet, you
44 know, you do not seem to have any records on that.
45
46 MR. JUSTICE BELL: So be it.
47
48 MS. STEEL: Is it purely up to the local stores how long they
49 want to keep the records?
50 A. No, as I say, the policy has now changed.
51
52 Q. When did that change?
53 A. I would think in the last two years that the personnel
54 department have been advocating that all personnel records
55 should be kept for a minimum of seven years.
56
57 MR. RAMPTON: My Lord, I am sorry, I must interrupt. Gary Davis
58 was in or around 1989, according to the pleadings; not two
59 years ago.
60
