Note: You can only delete policies that are in a Draft status. Policies and their versions that are not in Draft status cannot be deleted. Instead, you can archive policies that are in other statuses. Learn more about archiving policies.
Select the trash icon to delete the current unapproved version of the policy.
Confirm you decision.
This will permanently delete the unapproved version of the policy. After deleting that version, the policy reverts to the previous version.
Note: If the policy is on version one (v1), there are no prior versions to revert to, and the policy row will be removed from the table.
Possible Cases for deleting a Policy
The ability to delete a policy depends on its type, status, and version number. Below are the scenarios:
Policy type | Status | Version | Result |
Drata template policy | Draft | Version 0 (initial, unpublished) | Can’t be deleted |
Drata template policy | Draft | Version 1 or later | Draft can be deleted; reverts to the previous version |
Custom policy | Draft | Version 0 (initial, unpublished) | Can be deleted; policy is removed entirely |
Custom policy | Draft | Version 1 or later | Can be deleted; reverts to the previous version |
Any policy | Needs approval | Any | Can’t be deleted; cancel the approval cycle first |
Any policy | Not Draft | Any | Can’t be deleted; archive the policy instead |
Synced external policy (Confluence or Notion) | N/A | Any | Can’t be deleted in Drata; manage it in the external system and sync changes |
Note: Policies in any other status cannot be deleted, but can be archived.