What hope can we have that the Covid Inquiry, which finally began this week, will deliver the truth at the first time of asking? It is certainly an inquiry which matters hugely to millions. But, if the circumstances of its launch are anything to go by, people are already entitled to have their doubts.
The PM’s official announcement came just two days after bereaved families felt the need to threaten a judicial review over continued delays. Not a great look and hardly what you would call getting off on the right foot.
Consider this alongside proceedings this week at another major public inquiry involving the Department of Health and you have even more grounds for fearing the worst. The Infected Blood Inquiry is looking into how thousands of haemophiliacs came to be infected with Hepatitis C and HIV from faulty blood products imported from the US in the 1970s and 1980s, with over 2,000 lives lost and countless more ruined.
Just as with the Covid Inquiry, those affected had to fight to get the Blood Inquiry started — in their case, for three whole decades and more. This week, former Ministers gave evidence, including Sir John Major who described the situation as “incredibly bad luck”.
This is the official UK Government line that civil servants have given to every Minister since the scandal first broke. It is certainly what I was told as Health Secretary in 2010. It has held for 40 years or more. But I don’t think it can hold much longer.
I am due to give evidence to the Inquiry two weeks tomorrow so there is a limit to what more I can say here. What I can say is that the experience of the victims of contaminated blood, whilst extreme, is by no means unique.
Just like the Thalidomide victims before them, those damaged by Sodium Valproate are still fighting for answers. Only two weeks ago, victims of the pregnancy test Primodos were in court having to fight a Government bid to bully them into silence. And then consider one of the most egregious injustices of them all – the plight of the Nuclear Test Veterans. These men were serving our country overseas and exposed to nuclear blasts without their knowledge, consent or protective equipment. Despite huge health harms to them and their descendants, they have never even had access to their medical records.
Why does the state go to such lengths to prevent innocent victims being given the answers they deserve?
It’s partly about reputations, but mainly about money.
What all of these health scandals have in common is a default Government response primarily driven by fear of potential financial exposure rather than compassion for victims. This culture is ingrained in the British civil service and explains why its judgement is so clouded.
You can see this thinking in a document released this week from John Major’s time in the Treasury. It warned against a sympathetic response to infected blood victims as it could lead to “an open-ended commitment of huge dimensions”.
Of course, every Minister must consider the financial implications of their decisions. But it should always be a secondary concern behind what is morally right. In fact, telling the truth at the first time of asking can save money in the long run. It is what should happen – but a long list of justice campaigns proves it is not what actually happens.
So how do we break the cycle of repeated injustice and put the right values at the heart of the British state? The only way it will ever happen is if MPs on all sides get behind the proposed Hillsborough Law.
Next month, the Mayor of the Liverpool City-Region and I will be in Parliament to hand our proposed law over to MPs. Its central proposal is a “duty of candour” on all public servants – a legal and contractual duty to tell the truth at the first time of asking.
The Covid Inquiry is arguably the biggest and most important public inquiry this country has ever seen. But it will struggle to get to the truth if the civil service adopts its default approach.
In my experience, the vast majority of civil servants are good people. But they are asked to work in a system that is too desensitised. Let’s allow them to do the job they entered the profession to do – serving the public – and that means passing the Hillsborough Law – now.
