That’s the conclusion of a major report by a working party of legal rights group JUSTICE, ‘When things go wrong: the response of the justice system’, published this week. It looks at the erosion of public confidence in the justice system’s response to major incidents causing multiple fatalities and makes 54 recommendations for change.
JUSTICE’s director, Andrea Coomber said: ‘Our work began before the pandemic, but the current coronavirus crisis reinforces the importance and timeliness of this project.’
One flaw that the 130-page report highlights is the lack of formal implementation and oversight following the end of an inquest or inquiry, which makes the likelihood of future prevention limited.
It proposes creating a Central Inquiries Unit within government, a full-time Chief Coroner and a special procedure inquest for investigating mass fatalities as well as single deaths linked by systemic failure. The special procedure inquest would have powers to consider closed material and make specific recommendations to prevent recurrence.
Coomber said: ‘Our recommendations, in particular our proposal for a special procedure inquest, aim to equip the justice system with a means of effective investigation less dependent on the mercy of successive governments. Further, they aim to ensure that the implementation of recommendations is monitored―a crucial objective if we are to understand how the virus has killed so many and how to avoid future recurrence.’
The working party, which spent a year on the report, calls in the report for greater collaborations between agencies, which would reduce the number of times that bereaved people and survivors are asked to recount traumatic events. It also wants a more structured process for appointing inquiry chairs and panels, setting terms of reference and providing information.
Chairs of public inquiries have sometimes proved controversial―there was hostility among some campaigners and support groups to the appointment of Sir Martin Moore-Bick to chair the Grenfell Tower Inquiry, while the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse is now on its fourth chair following three resignations.
JUSTICE’s other recommendations include a statutory duty of candour, including a rebuttable requirement for position statements, and directing inquiries to the most important matters at an early stage.
Chair of the working party, Sir Robert Owen, said: ‘A system cannot provide justice if its processes exacerbate the grief and trauma of its participants.
‘Our recommendations seek to ensure that inquests and inquiries are responsive to the needs of bereaved people and survivors, while minimising the delay and duplication that impede effectiveness and erode public confidence. We think that this set of proposals, if implemented, will provide a cohesive and cost-effective system, with the prospect of a reduction in duplication and delay, and which in turn should serve to increase public trust.’
