How long is UK data kept after we leave?

Three different clocks, and it is worth separating them.

1. Consult audio: gone by default

Audio is kept encrypted only while you review, and by default deleted the moment you confirm the note; a practice can instead set immediate deletion after processing, or a short fixed retention window, always within a hard 7-day ceiling. See what happens to consult audio.

2. The clinical record: 14 days after you leave

On termination, or on your practice’s instruction, clinical data is deleted within 14 days. Deletion is performed so the data is irrecoverable in the ordinary course.

Export anything you are required to keep before you go: your practice remains responsible for its own record-keeping obligations, and exporting notes and letters covers what comes out of Akoua.

3. Backups: a 35-day tail

Encrypted backups expire on their retention cycle of 35 days, and they stay within the UK region. The backup tail runs alongside the deletion window above rather than after it: once deletion completes, a copy can still sit in an encrypted backup until that backup expires.

What is deliberately retained

Processing-evidence and audit records. These are append-only by design — deleting clinical content preserves the trail of what was processed, where and under what basis — and they are retained as required for legal claims and regulatory accountability. That is a deliberate choice: an audit log you can delete is not an audit log.

All of the above is contractual for United Kingdom organisations, in the UK Data Processing Schedule and the UK privacy notice.