Law Officers deny they're withholding information to the Care Inquiry

Monday 17 August 2015

The Jersey Law Officer's Department has said it is "surprised and concerned" about allegations made by the head of the Care Inquiry.

Frances Oldham QC last week alleged that reports, emails and investigations are being held back from the abuse inquiry, saying that States departments and government lawyers are refusing to hand over some critical evidence, and handing some files over too late to ask questions of key witnesses. In her remarks, Ms Oldham said that the inquiry is now considering setting a final deadline for the disclosure of the evidence – and that if the files are not handed over, they may have to assume that some people in government didn’t want evidence to see the light of day.

The statement from the Law Officer's Department said that they do not believe they have failed to provide any important documents, or that any have been provided too late. "As the Inquiry has progressed, requests for the disclosure of specific documents have been received from the Inquiry, often with short dead-lines.   These have been located, reviewed and redacted before being made available to the Inquiry.  The Law Officers’ Department has worked hard with the Inquiry to provide everything requested."

The current set of hearings is now over, but politicians will start to be called to give evidence for the first time in September to give evidence about what they knew about abuse in care homes and what they did about it.

So far, the inquiry has heard evidence from abuse victims about the sustained physical and sexual abuse that they were subjected to by staff while in care. Evidence has been heard about the Beast of Jersey at children’s homes, that the head of Haut de la Garenne raped a young girl at the home, and that notorious paedophile Jimmy Savile had been in Jersey.

In her statement, Ms Oldham said: “During this phase of evidence, the Inquiry has received excellent cooperation from the vast majority of witnesses, who have assisted the work of the Inquiry.

“However, we have been hampered by the late and non-disclosure of important documents, largely by the various States’ Departments, but also from the Law Officers Department. These include HR records, disciplinary and other investigations, policies, procedures, reports and emails, which have either failed to be disclosed, or have been disclosed after the relevant witness has given their evidence. Over the coming weeks, the Inquiry will review the recent disclosure and any documents which are forthcoming and will consider whether witnesses need to be recalled as a result."

The Law Officer's Department has countered this by saying that their documents are, in the main, relevant to phase 2 of the Inquiry when the material will put the evidence from police officers, lawyers and law officers into context. They have written to the Inquiry to request details by return of the documents which they suggest haven't been disclosed.

The publication of the Inquiry's final report is due at the end of 2016.