Subject: Re: Welsh Government response to request for information ATISN 26-0010 (Retention & destruction schedules))
From: Sion Buckler
Direction: sent
Date: Mon, 19 Oct 2026 22:13 UTC
Institution: Welsh Government / Cadw
Refs: ATISN 27021, ATISN 27589
Archive id: gm-1a1563a1a05563ce
------------------------------------------------------------

Dear Information Rights Unit,

To keep everything for the Welsh Government in one place, this email covers four things: (A) a request for an internal review of ATISN 26-0010; (B) ATISN 27589 (Cadw; your ref qA2496208); (C) four new requests for information; and (D) a request that records be preserved. I would be grateful if you could pass each part to the right team.

A. ATISN 26-0010 – request for internal review

Thank you, and please pass my thanks to Emma Harvey-Woodason, for the response of 19 October 2026. I ask for an internal review on four points. Each asks only for recorded information, or for confirmation that none is held.

1. Item 2 of my request asked for any recorded information on whether files in those series were destroyed, transferred or retained, and if destroyed "the date and authority". The response says "any routine records would have been destroyed in line with the corporate retention schedule applied at the time", and that it is "equally possible" that disposition "would have been carried out by a predecessor body". Please confirm whether the Welsh Government holds any record of an actual destruction, transfer or retention decision for files in those series relating to the farm, Western Ground Rents Ltd or BP Properties Ltd. If none is held, please confirm that the quoted sentences describe the likely position and not a recorded event.

2. If a specific entry in a retention schedule was relied on for the sentence quoted at point 1, please provide that entry (title, version, date). If no particular entry was identified, please say so. I have noted that the current schedules are published on GOV.WALES, so I am not asking you to explain them.

3. The response says that "Before 1997, the Welsh Office or other agencies … would have had their own retention schedules." Does the Welsh Government hold the Welsh Office schedules for the file series in item 1 of my request? If so, please provide them. If not, please say so and, if known, where they are held.

4. The response says: "Searches were carried out to find files mentioning the farm name and the companies listed in your request." Please provide the record of those searches: the systems, indexes and file series searched, the search terms, the date range, and whether the index of physical registered files was included. (The internal review of ATISN 27021, dated 2 July 2026, describes searches of physical registered files, including A--CL172-06-017/1 Community of Llandough, and a wider search of files from around the 1980s–1990s.)

For the avoidance of doubt, the 1988 Cadw listing file is not part of this review; it is covered by ATISN 26-0009 (response due 6 November 2026).

B. ATISN 27589 (Cadw; your ref qA2496208)

I note the letter of 19 October 2026 refusing ATISN 27589 under section 14(2). Three points, so that I can decide whether to ask for an internal review:

1. Section 14(2) applies only to a request that is substantially similar to an earlier one. Please tell me which points of ATISN 27589 the Welsh Government considers ATISN 27021 already covered. Point 3 of ATISN 27589 asked for "Any transfer, destruction or disposal of those files, with the schedule used and the date." ATISN 27021 did not ask for that.

2. The letter says that no new information "has been generated or become available". Please confirm whether it is saying that no information is held on any point of ATISN 27589 beyond what was released under ATISN 27021, or only that it declines to search again.

3. The letter sets out the right to complain to the Information Commissioner but not the internal review procedure, although it refers to the internal review of ATISN 27021. Please confirm how and by when I may ask for an internal review of ATISN 27589. I will not treat the time for asking as running until you have confirmed this.

The question in point 3 of ATISN 27589 is also being dealt with under ATISN 26-0009, so I am not making any new request about it here.

C. New requests under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and the Environmental Information Regulations 2004

These are new requests and not part of the review above. They concern Great House Farm / Tŷ Mawr, Llandough-juxta-Penarth, Vale of Glamorgan.

1. Registered files. The internal review of ATISN 27021 identified registered files (including A--CL172-06-017/1 Community of Llandough, CL172-10-001/1, A--CL172-10-002/1, A--CL172-10-001/1, and six files of potential interest). I am not asking for the contents of the files. For each file, please provide the register entry or index record showing its title, opening and closing dates, and current status (retained, transferred, destroyed or not traced) and, where the entry says a file was destroyed or transferred, the date and the record of the destruction or transfer.

2. Property and deeds records. The response to ATISN 26-0010 says that records of Welsh Government property, deeds and leasing are retained until the property is sold or the lease ends. Please confirm whether the Welsh Government or the Welsh Office has ever owned, leased, acquired or disposed of any interest in land at Great House Farm, Leckwith Road or village green VG41, Llandough, between 1950 and 1997, and provide any deed, lease or property file record of it. If none is held, please say so.

3. Wartime farm records, 1936–1955. Please provide any recorded information held by the Welsh Government, including records inherited from the Welsh Office, about the farm in 1936–1955:
(a) any record of the Glamorgan War Agricultural Executive Committee, or its post-war successor, about the farm, including any possession, requisition or cultivation direction;
(b) any claim or payment under the Compensation (Defence) Act 1939;
(c) any record naming the occupier or owner of the farm in that period.
I understand the 1941–43 National Farm Survey is held at The National Archives (MAF 32), so I am not asking for it. If any other record has been transferred to The National Archives, please give the reference rather than treating that part as not held.

4. Compulsory purchase and stopping-up orders, 1950–1995. Please confirm whether the Secretary of State for Wales or the Welsh Office made or confirmed any compulsory purchase order, stopping-up order or diversion order affecting the land at Great House Farm between 1950 and 1995, and provide a copy of any such order and of the decision confirming it. ATISN 26-0010 searched under the farm name and two company names. Orders of this kind are usually titled by road or place, so please also search under "Leckwith Road, Llandough", "Llandough-juxta-Penarth" and "Church View Close". If such records have been transferred to The National Archives, please give the reference.

If no information is held for any part, please say so. If anything is withheld, please give the exemption or exception relied on.

D. Preservation of records

As I asked on 28 September and 1 October 2026, please make sure that the following are not destroyed or weeded while ATISN 26-0009, the review in part A, the requests in part C and any complaint to the Information Commissioner remain open:

1. the index of physical registered files, and the registered files themselves, referred to in the internal review of ATISN 27021 (including A--CL172-06-017/1, CL172-10-001/1, A--CL172-10-002/1, A--CL172-10-001/1 and the six files of potential interest identified in that review);
2. any 1988 listing file for Great House Farm / Tŷ Mawr, or any part or remnant of it;
3. the originals of the two inspection photographs dated 29 July 1988 released under ATISN 27021, with any negatives, digital files, envelopes, captions or other information recorded with them;
4. any disposal or destruction logs, certificates or schedules of destruction covering Welsh Office or Cadw records for 1970–1997;
5. the retention schedules in force for those records in 1970–1997;
6. any transfer lists to The National Archives or a Place of Deposit for those records, including any selection records made under OSP 7.

Please confirm in writing that a hold is in place for these records.

Thank you for your help.

Yours sincerely,

Sion Buckler