[blibble]

most employers keep written records to avoid any possibility of a discrimination suit.

the government has very strong guidelines on this sort of thing, and if you're a large company with an HR department, the Information Commissioner is likely to not believe you if you state that you don't keep written records about job applicants, and destroying the information is a criminal offence.

example of an organisation's policy: http://www.ed.ac.uk/schools-departments/records-management-s...