Baker Stuart worked closely with the Information Management team at Buckinghamshire Council to efficiently capture and analyse all filing and storage in the 8 buildings using our FileLOOK™ app and reporting system.

The full project was conducted over a 10 week period, with trained filing auditors working on site over 6 weeks to collate information about all paper records held. Once all of the information was collated, Baker Stuart could provide a clear picture of the existing position through the use of our online dashboard.

In paper filing alone there was more than 13 times the height of the Shard being stored across the offices (4291 linear metres). This meant that over 18,500 sqft of space was being taken up by paper filing alone, costing the Council approximately £1.15m pa (using typical total occupancy costs for High Wycombe of £61.85/ sqft from Lambert Smith Hamptons TOCS 2021.

However, of all paper filing records, only 34% was used on a daily or weekly basis.  Using our six step rationalisation plan, alongside the Council Retention Schedule, we were able to recommend that 66% of paper records were removed from site – either to be archived or to be destroyed where we identified that they were no longer required.