A Cardiff law firm has revised its waste policy after confidential client documents were found by a local newspaper blowing down the road at the rear of its offices.


Jeffrey Freed of Freed & Co told the Gazette that, owing to human error, some documents were not shredded in line with the firm's usual policy. The rubbish bags they were in had been damaged and a 'small number of documents spilled into the lane at the rear of our offices'.



He added: 'We have amended our waste policy and arranged not only for all documents to be shredded but also for all waste to be collected by a private contractor.'



The South Wales Echo catalogued some of the documents it found in the road, but Mr Freed said that at least one of them came from another law firm's rubbish.



The paper also claimed that the documents could be used for identity theft and the solicitor replied: 'We have carried out an internal investigation to identify all the documents that were created and scheduled to be disposed of as waste during the relevant period, and I am satisfied to a very high degree of certainty that all the papers affected by this incident have been recovered.'



A Solicitors Regulation Authority spokesman said it would check that the firm had 'adequate procedures' for confidential waste disposal.



Neil Rose