Departme

nt
of
Health

From Rt Hon Norman Lamb MP

Minister of State for Care and
Support

Department of
Health Richmond
House 79 Whitehall
London SW1A 2NA

Dear Mrs Reeves,

Thank you for your letter of 15 July from you and your family about the
establishment of an Independent Panel to review the events at Gosport War
Memorial Hospital.
As you know from previous correspondence I believe that this approach will be the
most efficient and effective way to assess whether any wrongdoing was done to
patients on the part of those caring for them at Gosport and whether there may
have been a deliberate attempt on the part of the various agencies involved in
the cases to cover up any such wrongdoing.
I am happy to set out, briefly, my reasons for this view. Firstly, I believe a panel of
relevant experts will be well equipped to review the very large quantity of
material held by the various agencies involved and generated through the course
of numerous previous investigations. As you know, we have secured Christine
Gifford to work as part of the Panel. She is a recognised expert in the fields of
Data Protection and Freedom of Information who will work with the organisations
involved to secure access to their information wherever possible.
It is important that the Independent Panel avoids duplicating what has gone
before and is able to review and analyse existing material and to place it in its
proper context in order to be able to draw conclusions from it. Speed and
efficiency are matters of concern to the families that I and Bishop James Jones
have spoken to, and i believe that if properly resourced this may be an equally, if
not more, effective way of addressing yours and other relatives concerns.
Whilst the Panel does not have statutory powers to compel organisations, or
individuals, to hand over documentation I am advised that this does not outweigh
other factors. For example, I am clear that the work of the Panel may reveal the
need for further proceedings to be taken whether in the form of criminal
prosecutions or fresh inquests, as has been the case at Hillsborough. A statutory
inquiry is not an effective way of holding individuals to account or for making
findings about a persons civil or criminal liability as it is not a court of law and it
is not within the remit

Departme
nt of
Health
of any type of public inquiry to determine such issues. The limitations of
statutory inquiries held under the Inquiries Act 2005 are set out in section 2 of
the Act.
You rightly point out the useful report produced by a House of Lords Select
Committees post-legislative scrutiny of the Inquiries Act 2005. As you would
expect, I am fully aware of its conclusions and of the Governments response.
However, the Act gives ministers the option of using it or not, and the
Government believes it is important to adopt the most suitable approach given
the particular circumstances of the matter to be investigated.
It is my strong contention that convening an Independent Panel of Experts is a
reasonable course of action because of the many changes to the health and
care regulatory system, because of the many investigations that have gone
before into your mothers and other patients deaths at Gosport, and because of
the need to avoid duplicating this work as well as the requirement to conduct
this review of the documentary evidence as quickly and effectively as possible.
I have seen your letters agreeing to share contact details with the Independent
Panel team and asking for a meeting with Christine Gifford. I can assure you that
these letters have recently been passed on to the team by my office and they
will be in contact very shortly. I hope you are able to have a productive
conversation with them, and please accept my apologies at the delay in sending
your details on to them.
Yours sincerely,

NORMAN LAMB