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Publication duties
Closure ends the project, not the record. Under Interreg Europe rules, supporting documents stay five years from 31 December of the last payment year. Most teams take the live site down and keep a dated static capture. Retention length depends on the funder and the sector.
A reference note from Dan Malone, who builds software products.
The rule
“All supporting documents must be kept for at least a 5-year retention period from 31 December of the year in which the last payment by the managing authority to the project is made.”
The facts
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| EU funds: when the clock starts | Supporting documents stay five years. The clock starts 31 December of the year of the last payment to the beneficiary. Source |
| EU funds: the clock can pause | Legal proceedings, or a request from the Commission, interrupt the five-year period. Source |
| EU funds: some cases run longer | State aid cases or national rules can push the retention period past five years. Source |
| UK ESF 2014-2020: one fixed date | Beneficiaries must retain all documents on each operation until 31 December 2030. The programme itself ended in March 2023. Source |
| UK ESF: if the organisation closes | On termination or closure of the operation, all documentation returns to the Managing Authority or the relevant Intermediate Body. Source |
| FCA: five years for MiFID records | A common platform firm must retain records on its MiFID business for at least five years. Source |
| FCA: the archive must resist edits | The medium must let the FCA access records readily. Nobody may manipulate or alter them. Corrections stay traceable. Source |
| FCA: non-MiFID has no fixed term | Firms keep records as long as they stay relevant to the purpose. No single figure applies. Source |
| FCA: language of the record | Records should be reproducible in English on paper. A record in another language needs a translation on request. Source |
| Accessibility: what counts as an archive | An archive holds only content that no active administrative process needs. It also had no edit after 23 September 2019. Source |
| Accessibility: the UK test matches | UK regulations use the same two-part test and the same date, 23rd September 2019. Source |
| Public web archives get procured | The National Archives awarded the UK Government Web Archive to MirrorWeb Ltd on 14 November 2016. Total value of the awarded contract: £2,500,000. Source |
The artefact
What goes wrong
/01
The domain lapses before the retention end date, so the record and its address both disappear
/02
The capture stores HTML but skips linked PDFs and spreadsheets, which hold the evidence an auditor asks for
/03
A rebuild goes live on the same URL, so the archived version gets overwritten
/04
Only the homepage gets captured; deep pages, filters and form results are missing
/05
Somebody edits the archived site after closure, so the accessibility archive exemption stops applying
/06
Retention ends on paper, but old backups keep personal data past the data minimisation point
/07
The old CMS or plugin reaches end of life, so nobody can open the archive later
/08
Hosting moves, redirects break, and inbound links from funder pages return 404
/09
The capture date is nowhere on the page, so no reader can tell which version they see
/10
Records sit with a departing supplier, and the obligated organisation holds no copy of its own
Who supplies this
Website and social media archiving aimed at compliance and public records teams.
https://www.pagefreezer.com/website-archiving/
Website archiving platform. Won The National Archives contract for the UK Government Web Archive.
https://www.mirrorweb.com/platform/website-archiving/
Subscription web archiving used by libraries, universities and government bodies.
https://archive-it.org/
Dynamic web and collaboration archiving built for ediscovery and regulated records.
https://hanzo.co/
Scheduled screenshot capture. Low cost option for dated visual proof of a page.
https://www.stillio.com/
The public archive of UK government websites. The reference model for a closed public site.
https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/webarchive/
Send the duty, the deadline and where it has to sit. What comes back is a written scope for the page, or a straight answer that you do not need one.
Send the briefLast checked 2026-09-01 · Published 2026-09-01
This page is reference material, not legal advice. Your advisor owns what applies to you.