Secretariat
Defence Infrastructure Organisation
Wai Ming Yau
St George’s House
Lichfield
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx.xxx
Staffordshire
WS14 9PY
E-mail: xxxxxxxxxxxx@xxx.xxx.xx
www.gov.uk/DIO
20 January 2023
Ref. FOI 2022/15314
Dear Wai Ming Yau,
Thank you for your email of 23 December 2022 requesting the following information:
“During the sale of RAF Finningley, now Doncaster Sheffield Airport to Peel Holdings, is
there an existence of an agreement whereby the extra long runway would be protected for use by
the United States for their B-52 bombers should a national or global emergency arise and is there
anything which prevents this clause being activated now given the potential permanent closure of
the airport?
I am seeking the existence of any clauses which prevent the destruction of the runway”
I am treating your correspondence as a request for information under the Freedom of Information
Act 2000 (FOIA).
A search for the information has now been completed within the Ministry of Defence (MOD) and I
can confirm that all the information in scope of your request is held. However, the information is
exempt under Section 21 of the FOI Act because it is reasonably accessible to you, and I am
pleased to inform you that you can obtain a copy of the registered title from the Land Registry.
Under Section 16 of the Act (Advice and Assistance) you may find it helpful to know that the land
was transferred by the Secretary of State for Defence, subject to a restriction on disposal of and
works/engineering operations to, the Principal Runways for a period of five years from the 17 June
1999. This restriction is no longer in place.
Any further restrictions or limitations on use of any part of the property transferred will be detailed
in the registered title, which is publicly available from the Land Registry.
If you have any queries regarding the content of this letter, please contact this office in the first
instance.
If you wish to complain about the handling of your request, or the content of this response, you
can request an independent internal review by contacting the Information Rights Compliance
team, Ground Floor, MOD Main Building, Whitehall, SW1A 2HB (e-mail
xxxxxxxxxx@xxx.xx).
Please note that any request for an internal review should be made within 40 working days of the
date of this response.
If you remain dissatisfied following an internal review, you may raise your complaint directly to the
Information Commissioner under the provisions of Section 50 of the Freedom of Information Act.
Please note that the Information Commissioner will not normally investigate your case until the
MOD internal review process has been completed. The Information Commissioner can be
contacted at: Information Commissioner’s Office, Wycliffe House, Water Lane, Wilmslow,
Cheshire, SK9 5AF. Further details of the role and powers of the Information Commissioner can
be found on the Commissioner's website at
https://ico.org.uk/.
Yours sincerely,
DIO Secretariat
