Archive: Project Brief — Evidence Recovery (Draft)

Project Brief — Evidence Recovery

Derived from: Project Mandate (16 October 2026)
Brief date: 16 October 2026
Stage: S0 Start-up & Initiation
Next gate: G0, 18 December 2026
Document status: Proposal for client acceptance. Not a plan.

1. Project definition

Propose how to fulfil the mandate: recover all surviving evidence for Great House Farm / Tŷ Mawr by exhausting every lawful route, and close out every item that cannot be obtained.

2. Outline approach

• Map every discovery route against the policies, procedures and laws of each holding institution.
• Execute FOI/EIR requests, GDPR/SARs, formal complaints with remedy opportunity, and court applications for production or preservation where holders are restrictive.
• Catalogue, provenance-check and verify everything obtained.
• Log a formal closure status for everything not obtained.

3. Outline scope

In scope: the routes above, across all relevant custodians.
Out of scope: any finding of fraud, concealment or government involvement that meets a reopening or reporting threshold. That triggers a separate parallel project.

4. Closure test (salvaged from prior mandate draft)

For each surviving record or artefact, the phase records one of five statuses:

• Obtained — with catalogue reference, provenance and verification status.
• Destroyed — with source and date of that determination.
• Missing — with the search trail showing where it should have been.
• Classified / withheld — with the exemption or basis cited.
• Ruled out — lost forever — with the reasoning documented.

No item remains open without one of these five statuses. The phase ends when the closure test is satisfied for every identified item.

5. Trigger events (salvaged from prior mandate draft)

Three trigger events sit outside this phase and, if met, launch a new project running in parallel:

1. Fraud — evidence identifying a specific person’s deliberate dishonesty that was an operative cause of a material outcome (per Takhar v Gracefield [2019] UKSC 13).
2. Concealment — evidence that a relevant fact was intentionally concealed, engaging limitation postponement (per Canada Square v Potter [2023] UKSC 41).
3. Government involvement — evidence that a public body acted unlawfully or in breach of duty in a way that is itself actionable or reportable.

A trigger is met only when the evidence crosses the documented threshold. A missing file, a contradiction, or an unverified premise is not a trigger.

6. Outline business case

Without a complete evidence base, no title, remedy or accountability route can be assessed. This phase is the foundation for every subsequent decision.

7. Client acceptance

This brief is submitted to the executor for acceptance. Once accepted, together with the mandate, it forms the foundation for the Project Plan.