Wednesday, October 7, 2026
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The Open File

Every undertaking this newspaper has printed and not yet kept — 25 of them — with the date it comes due.

A promise made at the foot of a story is invisible six months later. This page is how a reader holds us to one. If a date passes and nothing has been published, the correct assumption is that the answer was inconvenient, and the letters column is the place to say so.

Owed

  1. Due October 2026

    The signed inspector's day sheets for 9 August, which record the exact minute the window was called and by whom. The ministry says they exist and are held by the inspectorate, not by the safety unit.

    Promised in Forty-One Minutes Of Camera At 703 Metres. The Walls Are Cut.

  2. Due October 2026

    The national programme's answer on the 9 per cent its own figures do not account for.

    Promised in Antarctic Flights Are Running 41 Per Cent Over What The Stations Need

  3. Due November 2026

    Custody Chain No. 4 — nine entries, a chain with no impossibility in it, and the fault somewhere other than the table.

    Promised in Eight Signatures. Everyone Was Where They Said. One Entry Still Cannot Have Happened.

  4. Due November 2026

    Whether the programme will file a corrected position for the 2026–27 season, and whether the treaty secretariat has ever checked a notified coordinate against an image.

    Promised in The Same Coordinates Since 2015. The Station Moved 84 Kilometres In 2019.

  5. Due November 2026

    An answer from the competent authority on whether any part of the £780 is returnable when a permitted expedition does not sail, and what happens to the permit on 28 February 2027.

    Promised in We Applied To Camp At A Forbidden Coordinate. The Permit Came Back Approved.

  6. Due December 2026

    The name behind the fourth allocation from this band, redacted in annex B, and what was done with the material.

    Promised in Three Laboratories Have Dated The 1,412-Metre Band. I Have All Three Numbers.

  7. Due December 2026

    The archive's answer on voucher series 14-B-129, and our appeal against the exemption if the answer is no.

    Promised in Clause 9 Takes Away The Landlord's Key. Here Is What A Safe House Costs.

  8. Due December 2026

    A second, independent geodetic tie between the array's underground datum and the surface grid, commissioned from a surveyor with no connection to the first. Without it the 1.8 metres is our weakest number and we are treating it as such.

    Promised in Fourteen Detectors Found The Same Eight Shafts. And One We Got Wrong.

  9. Due December 2026

    The withheld pages, published in full, including if they are dull.

    Promised in Court Orders Eleven Of The Seventeen Withheld Pages Released

  10. Due January 2027

    The withheld decision rationale for the descoped G-9 pass, or the appeal outcome refusing it.

    Promised in A Mascon Is Buried Mass. Under This One There Is Nothing To Bury.

  11. Due January 2027

    The redrafted clause 11 — reported when it appears, including if it is worse.

    Promised in You May Not Tell Your Own Board What You Heard

  12. Due February 2027

    The naval records centre's answer on the technical reports filed under contract N-4109, and series 7 of the Fairweather-Okafor papers if the trustee opens it.

    Promised in Sub-Account 4109-A Changed Heading In 1965. It Closed In 1981.

  13. Due February 2027

    The four far-side station records, or the written refusal with a reference number on it that the Coordination Office says our appeal will produce.

    Promised in We Paid Three Groups To Fit The Ringing. All Three Needed A Cavity.

  14. Due March 2027

    Whether any of the forty-one accepted an examination, reported either way, including if the answer stays none.

    Promised in We Offered To Pay For 11 Eye Exams. Ten People Never Replied.

  15. Due March 2027

    Whether the scheme administrator ever answered on separation code 7714-C, and what a sixth request produced.

    Promised in He Said 66 Men Died Under That Mesa. We Found 41 Of The Funerals.

  16. Due March 2027

    The line list from the 2018 Queue 9 audit — all 411 items — or a written refusal we can appeal.

    Promised in She Filed In 1996 For One Sentence. It Arrived In June, On Page 29.

  17. Due March 2027

    The facility's transmitting hours for 2026 and 2027, published either way — including if they are zero, and including if the place has shut.

    Promised in We Tested The Heater Against Forty Years Of Storms. It Was Switched Off.

  18. Due March 2027

    The 2019–21 lines over the remaining 60 per cent of the Wilkes Land anomaly, re-gridded on the same terms and published whatever they show.

    Promised in The 480-Kilometre Ring Under Wilkes Land Is Three Hills And A Tension Setting

  19. Due March 2027

    The two scheduling memoranda still withheld, or the refusal to release them.

    Promised in Eleven Times They Scheduled The Gold Count. Nine Times They Didn't.

  20. Due June 2027

    The Kelling-Baird sales ledgers for 1958–1969, or a court's stated reason why not.

    Promised in Thirty-One Vouchers Leave The Number Blank. They Run To 1969.

  21. Due November 2027

    The results of the cumulative exposure study — forty dosimeters, twelve months.

    Promised in Forty People Will Wear A Meter For A Year. They Picked Them.

  22. Due March 2030

    Whatever comes back from the letter we left at the cemetery counter for the payer of plot 611. It asks four questions and gives an address. It will be handed over at the next renewal or handed back to us.

    Promised in The Illuminati Were Banned In 1785. Somebody Still Pays For The Grave.

  23. standing — whenever the archive catalogues it

    The second computing series, covering the inland traverses, and a count of how many of its sheets she initialled.

    Promised in Winifred Achterberg-Lyle Fixed 76 Points On A Continent She Never Saw. She Was 94.

  24. standing — no deadline

    Anything in the operational records that contradicts this story, printed at the top of the piece.

    Promised in Thirteen Ships Went South. They Came Home Six Weeks Early.

  25. standing — no deadline

    Any evidence that the tower transmitted power rather than signal, printed as prominently as the claim.

    Promised in Morgan Paid For A Radio Station And Got A Power Plant

Kept

  1. Kept August 10, 2026

    The cumulative study, with the protocol published before the work and the participants chosen by the campaigners.

    Promised in They Chose The Schools. We Brought The Meters. · in the piece that pays it off

  2. Kept September 5, 2026

    Custody Chain No. 2, with seven entries, two impossibilities and the location of every registry stated.

    Promised in Our New Puzzle Was Solved In 14 Minutes. Then She Found A Second Flaw. · in the piece that pays it off

  3. Kept September 5, 2026

    Custody Chain No. 3 — eight entries, one impossibility, and the impossibility in a date rather than a place.

    Promised in Seven Signatures. Two Are Impossible. One Of Them Is Only The Clock. · in the piece that pays it off