3.6. The NHS Code of Practice sets minimum periods for the retention of papers, including 30 years for board agendas and minutes.2 However, records for the last 30 years retained by Broadmoor Hospital and the bodies responsible for it at different times are incomplete. In some cases, we were unable to locate certain papers that we are confident must have existed (such as most of Broadmoor’s board papers for 1997); in other cases, the records did not hold documents that we believe, but cannot be certain, existed (such as letters appointing the members of the task force in 1988).
(Emphases supplied)