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Government by Inquiry House of Commons Public Administration Select Committee Government By Inquiry Written Evidence Ordered by The House of Commons to be printed 9 December 2004 HC 51-II Published on 4 January 2005 by authority of the House of Commons London: The Stationery Office Limited £11.00 The Public Administration Select Committee The Public Administration Select Committee is appointed by the House of Commons to examine the reports of the Parliamentary Commissioner for Administration, of the Health Service Commissioners for England, Scotland and Wales and of the Parliamentary Ombudsman for Northern Ireland, which are laid before this House, and matters in connection therewith and to consider matters relating to the quality and standards of administration provided by civil service departments, and other matters relating to the civil service; and the committee shall consist of eleven members. Current membership Tony Wright MP (Labour, Cannock Chase) (Chairman) Mr Kevin Brennan MP (Labour, Cardiff West) Annette Brooke MP (Liberal Democrat, Mid Dorset and Poole North) Mrs Anne Campbell MP (Labour, Cambridge) Sir Sydney Chapman MP (Conservative, Chipping Barnet) Mr David Heyes MP (Labour, Ashton under Lyne) Mr Kelvin Hopkins MP (Labour, Luton North) Mr Ian Liddell-Grainger MP (Conservative, Bridgwater) Mr Gordon Prentice MP (Labour, Pendle) Hon Michael Trend, CBE MP (Conservative, Windsor) Mr Brian White MP (Labour, Milton Keynes North East) Powers The committee is one of the select committees, the powers of which are set out in House of Commons Standing Orders, principally in SO No 146. These are available on the Internet via www.parliament.uk. Publications The Reports and evidence of the Committee are published by The Stationery Office by Order of the House. All publications of the Committee (including press notices) are on the Internet at: www.parliament.uk/parliamentary_committees/public_administration_select_co mmittee.cfm Committee staff The current staff of the Committee are Philip Aylett (Clerk), Clive Porro (Second Clerk), Lucinda Maer (Committee Specialist), Jackie Recardo (Committee Assistant), Jenny Pickard (Committee Secretary) and Phil Jones (Senior Office Clerk). Contacts All correspondence should be addressed to the Clerk of the Public Administration Select Committee, Committee Office, First Floor, 7 Millbank, House of Commons, London SW1P 3JA. The telephone number for general enquiries is 020 7219 3284; the Committee’s email address is [email protected] Public Administration Select Committee: Evidence 1 List of written evidence Mrs S Grapes (GBI 01) Ev 1 The Reverend A Pyke (GBI 02) Ev 1 PIELLE Consulting Group (GBI 04) Ev 1 Law Reform Commission of Ireland (GBI 05) Ev 7 Robert Francis Q.C (GBI 06) Ev 8 Ann Abraham, Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (GBI 07) Ev 20 Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution (CEDR) (GBI 08) Ev 22 Dr Iain S MacDonald CB (GBI 11) Ev 26 David Hinchliffe MP, Chair of the Health Committee (GBI 12) Ev 28 Sir Cecil Clothier (GBI 14) Ev 28 Roger Masterman, University of Durham (GBI 15) Ev 28 Lee Hughes CBE, Head of Judicial Competitions (Courts) Division (GBI 16) Ev 34 Professor Jeffrey Jowell QC (GBI 17) Ev 39 Graham Mather, President, European Policy Forum (GBI 20) Ev 39 National Foot and Mouth Group (GBI 23) Ev 42 Iain McLean, Professor of Politics, Oxford University (GBI 26) Ev 44 2 Public Administration Select Committee: Evidence An Issues and Questions Paper INTRODUCTION PASC—the Public Administration Select Committee—is looking into the use of investigatory inquiries by Government. This paper sets out some of the issues on which the Committee wishes to hear views. It contains a list of questions which is not exhaustive, but which outlines the main areas for discussion. The Committee is publishing this paper to encourage debate and provide a basis for evidence in the inquiry. Definitions The term “independent public inquiry” is a loose one. It is applied equally to investigations surrounding accidents in transport or other industries and to commissions of independent expert advisers producing proposals for public policy reform. It is also applied to everyday inquiries such as those held under planning legislation or company law. This inquiry is concerned with none of these. Rather it will be considering those inquiries set up by ministers to investigate particular, controversial events giving rise to public concern. They are often termed judicial inquires in so far as they are often chaired by a leading judge (Hutton, Phillips, McPherson, Saville, Bingham, Scarman to name a few). But this is not invariably the case (e.g. Sir Ian Kennedy’s chairmanship of the Bristol Inquiry, Dr Iain Anderson’s Inquiry into Lessons to be Learnt from Foot and Mouth and now Sir Michael Bichard’s Inquiry into the Soham murders). The investigatory process may statutory or conducted by means of ad hoc procedures. Development of the independent public inquiry From the middle of the 19th century until 1921, the usual method of investigating events giving rise to public disquiet about the alleged misconduct of ministers or other public servants was by means of a Select Parliamentary Committee or Commission of Inquiry. It was therefore one such Select Committee which was appointed to investigate the allegations surrounding what became known as the Marconi Scandal of 1912 concerning widespread rumours that the Government had corruptly favoured the Marconi Company in the construction of a chain of state owned wireless telegraph stations throughout the British Empire and that certain prominent members of the Government had improperly benefited from the transaction. At the end of the investigation the Committee, and then the House, divided on strictly party lines. As a result when allegations were made by a Member of Parliament against officials in the Ministry of Munitions in 1921 Parliament decided to enact instead an investigatory mechanism to deal with this and any other matters which might arise in future. The Tribunals of Inquiry (Evidence) Act 1921 however still requires a resolution of both Houses to establish an inquiry tribunal. A number of significant events have since been investigated under the Act, such as the unauthorised disclosure of information relating to the Budget by the Colonial Secretary in 1936 and the employment of the Soviet spy William John Vassall in the Admiralty in 1962. Public Administration Select Committee: Evidence 3 Some twenty one tribunals of inquiry were established between 1921 and 1978 followed by a hiatus lasting until the mid-1990s since when four more inquiries have been called (Shipman, Bloody Sunday, Child Abuse in North Wales and Dunblane). Powers and Legal Basis The powers for statutory inquiries are mainly derived from the 1921 Act. This provides for the tribunal to have all the powers, rights and privileges that are vested in the High Court. It can enforce the attendance of witnesses whom it may examine under oath, and it may compel the production of documents. Failure to comply can lead to the Chairman certifying the offence to the High Court where the witness may be punished in the same way as if he had committed contempt of court. The Act however contains no provisions concerning the procedure to be followed by a tribunal. Legislation concerning certain parts of the public service such as the NHS, or the police also makes provision for tribunals of inquiry in given circumstances. Section 84 of the National Health Service Act 1977, for example, gives an inquiry powers to compel persons to give evidence or to produce papers; and to take evidence on oath or affirmation. However a number of the most high profile inquiries in recent years have been non- statutory, where the power to summon witnesses and evidence has been based on the determination of the chairman and the willingness of the Government in particular to cooperate. The earliest example is probably the Denning inquiry into the Profumo affair in the early 1960s. The Hutton, Phillips and Scott inquiries are three more recent instances of such non-statutory investigations, which have been increasingly favoured by ministers. A relatively rare variant of ad hoc inquiries is the Committee of Privy Counsellors, one of which has just been established under the chairmanship of Lord Butler of Brockwell. Prior to that Mrs Thatcher set up a Committee led by Lord Franks to review the actions of the Government in the period leading up to the invasions of the Falkland Islands. Another was established in 1955 to examine security procedures in the public services as a result of the defection of Burgess and MacLean. This sort of committee is particularly appropriate where much of the evidence is likely to be highly sensitive, related to security or intelligence matters and can be made available on “privy counsellor terms”. The concept of the Privy Counsellors’ committee is partly reflected in the system of parliamentary oversight of the security services. Although not necessarily Privy Counsellors, members of the Intelligence and Security Committee are senior Parliamentarians. The Committee is set up by statute and reports to the Prime Minister. Their access to information however is subject to possible restrictions. The Salmon Royal Commission The Royal Commission chaired by Lord Salmon (Cmnd 3121) reported in November 1966. It examined the tribunal model established under the Tribunals of Inquiry (Evidence) Act 1921 and whether it should be replaced by other inquiry forms when cases concerning alleged instances of
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