To revise or edit. Often used to describe the process of blanking out sensitive information in a document before disclosure. For example, as part of the disclosure process in the course of litigation, or before a commercial transaction, a party may redact irrelevant commercially sensitive or confidential material and privileged material that should not be disclosed to the other party.

For information about redaction in England and Wales, in the context of the civil litigation disclosure regime under Civil Procedure Rule 31, Practice Direction (PD) 31A and PD 31B, see Practice note, Disclosure: reviewing the client's documents. See, also, Legal update, No wasted costs order but reminder of solicitor's duties regarding disclosure (High Court), which highlights the need for solicitors to supervise the redaction of documents.

For proceedings subject to PD 57AD ("Disclosure in the Business and Property Courts"), specific requirements regarding redaction of documents are set out at PD 57AD.16.

PD 57AD took effect on 1 October 2022, replacing what was PD 51U, and implementing, on a permanent basis, the procedures that applied, from 1 January 2019 until 1 October 2022, under the Disclosure Pilot Scheme.

For details of our materials on the approach to disclosure under PD 57AD, see Disclosure in the B&PCs toolkit.

For information about the personal identifiers that must be redacted from documents filed in US district courts, see Practice note, Filing Documents in Federal District Court: Redact Personal Identifiers Before Filing.