By Public Demand! Inquiries, Investigations and the Law

BOOKINGS FOR THIS EVENT ARE NOW CLOSED!
A conference to discuss rights to investigation, statutory inquiries & independent reviews and the potential these have to hold the state to account.

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MORNING SESSION
CHAIR: Deborah Coles, Director, Inquest

9.00 Coffee and Registration
9.30 OPENING ADDRESS:
Ms Janet Love, National Director of the Legal Resources Centre, South Africa and
Commissioner of the South African Human Rights Commission
Reflecting on experience in the democratic South Africa, including the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the Farlam Commission into the Marikana killings, Janet will look at:

• The tension between restitution and culpability
• Inequality of arms in challenging the state
• Executive influence over independent investigative bodies

9.55 THE HARRIS REVIEW:
A NON-STATUTORY, INDEPENDENT INQUIRY
A look at the independent review into Self-inflicted Deaths in Custody of 18-24 year olds (‘The Harris Review’), and specifically:
• Limitations of individual statutory investigations, such as inquests and investigations by the Prisons an Probations Ombudsman
• Terms of reference
• Commissioning new research and data analysis
• Achievements of the independent review (both actual and potential) and issues arising
Lord Toby Harris, Chair of the Independent Advisory Panel on Deaths in Custody

10.25 THE INQUIRIES ACT 2005 / THE INQUIRY RULES 2006
• Choosing terms of reference
• Designating Core Participants
• Section 40 legal costs
• Witnesses
• Disclosure and restrictions
• Rule 13 warning letters (Maxwellisation)
Martin Smith, Fieldfisher, Solicitor to the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual
Abuse (IICSA) and The Litvinenko Inquiry. He will draw on his experience in explaining the statutory framework.

10.55 Refreshment Break

11.15 THE LEGAL BASIS FOR THE DUTY TO INVESTIGATE:
DOMESTIC LAW, ECHR AND OTHER INTERNATIONAL LAW.
• Articles 2, 3 and 4 of the Convention: in what circumstances does the state come under a duty to carry out an investigation?
• Are those duties reflected in the common law?
• What other common law or international investigative obligations are there?
• When is there a legal duty to hold a public inquiry under the Inquiries Act 2005 or otherwise?
Henrietta Hill QC & Adam Straw, Doughty Street Chambers

11.50 HISTORY IN THE MAKING:RECONSTRUCTING EVENTS, GATHERING EVIDENCE AND PRESENTING TESTIMONY
The panel will look at methods of collecting, analysing and presenting evidence as part of an investigation or reconstruction. It will also consider the importance of evidence gathering and disclosure in building the case for an investigation, and documenting testimony for historical recovery for victims and future generations. Topics include:
• Using the FOIA, DPA, or otherwise to get maximum disclosure
• Reconstruction and recovery of events
• Working with whistle-blowers
• Communicating through the media and through other creative means.
Alan Brecknell, Family Support Worker, Pat Finucane Centre working with the Recovery
of Living memory Archive (ROLMA) project
Katherine Churcher, Director & Producer, Channel Four Dispatches ‘The Police’s Dirty Secret’
Jeremy Deller, Turner Prize-Winning Artist, curated reconstruction of the Battle of Orgreave
(TBC)
Michael McColgan, Truth and Justice for Orgreave Campaign
Marcia Willis Stewart, Birnberg Peirce (TBC)

12.45 Lunch

AFTERNOON SESSION
Chair: Dan Leader, Leigh Day

13.45 BREAKOUT SESSIONS – 1 –
Each session is scheduled to last an hour.
Please choose one of the following

1. Commissioning and producing Independent Reports
By reference to a number of recent independent reports, the panel will look at:
• Gathering and using data
• Choosing appropriate methodology
• Building a case for further investigation or institutional and/or policy change. Reports referred to will include:
No Passport Equals No Home: An Independent evaluation of the ‘right to rent’ scheme (JCWI)
Keys to the Gateway: An Independent Review of the Mandatory Civil Legal Advice Gateway (PLP) and
A place to call home: A report into the standard of housing provided to children in need in London (Hackney Community Law Centre)
Ben Hickman, Myriad Research
Eleanor Murray, Value for Money Audit Manager,National Audit Office (Chair)
David Oldfield, the Public Law Project
Chai Patel, Joint Committee for the Welfare of Immigrants (JCWI)
Wendy Pettifer, Hackney Community Law Centre
Charlotte Threipland, Editor of openJustice at openDemocracy

2. Investigating the investigators
This seminar will examine the duty, cast on the police by the HRA in recent case law, to investigate serious crimes against the person. It will also consider the ‘Undercover Policing Inquiry’ (The ‘Pitchford Inquiry’) and the means by which it grapples with public interest questions (e.g. through sensitive evidence and anonymity applications) and the advantages or otherwise of this process over court proceedings.
Rosa Curling, Leigh Day
Phillippa Kaufmann QC, Matrix Chambers
Heather Williams QC, Doughty Street Chambers
Chair: Jenny Jones, Green Party Assembly Member for London.

14.45 SHORT BREAK TO FIND YOUR NEXT SESSION

14.50 BREAKOUT SESSIONS – 2 –
Each session is scheduled to last an hour.
Please choose one of the following:

3. When should there be a duty to investigate UK military action abroad?
Sean Aughey, 11 KBW,
Danny Friedman QC, Matrix Chambers
Kevin Laue, Legal Adviser, REDRESS
Chair: Richard Norton-Taylor, Defence and Security Writer, the Guardian

4. The positive duties on the state to investigate trafficking and protect victims
There are a wide set of duties on different defendants including (but not only) police and the home office. This seminar will look at the duties to investigate trafficking, and to identify and protect victims. Areas considered include UKVI entry clearance, immigration enforcement and screening, and failure by the police to investigate and protect.
Catherine Meredith, Doughty Street Chambers
Juliette Nash, Anti Trafficking and Labour Exploitation Unit (ATLEU)
Chair:Klara Skrivankova, Europe Programme and Advocacy Coordinator, Anti-Slavery International

5 Investigating the NHS – protecting the vulnerable and defending patient safety
This session considers the range of public and private law investigation processes, including large-scale public inquiries and private law claims, that are available to expose organisational failings, malpractice and mistreatment in the NHS. Panellists will consider the obligations to investigate imposed by common law and Articles 2, 3 and 8 ECHR in the healthcare context, and NHS investigations and inquiries in practice.
Eleanor Grey QC, 39 Essex Chambers
Alison Millar & Emma Jones, Leigh Day
Jesse Nicholls, Doughty Street Chambers
Chair: Mandie Lavin, Trustee, The Patients Association & CEO, The Chartered Institute of Legal Executives (CILEX)

15.50 BREAK – FILM SCREENINGS IN BREAKOUT ROOMS

16.10 IS JUSTICE DELAYED JUSTICE WHOLLY DENIED?
REMEDIES FOR HISTORICAL MISCONDUCT
• When do the duties under articles 2,3 and 4 apply to historic deaths or mistreatment
• Other routes to the investigation of historicmisconduct.
• Keyu (on the Batang Kali massacre) and recent caselaw.
• Ongoing Northern Ireland legacy Inquiries
Danny Friedman QC, Matrix Chambers
John Halford, Bindmans
Ms Janet Love, National Director of the Legal Resources Centre, South Africa
Pádraig Ó Muirigh, Ó Muirigh Solicitors

17.00 CLOSING ADDRESS: Raju Bhatt

17.15 Close

Standard fee: £192 per delegate (£160 + VAT per delegate)
Discounted fee: £144 per delegate (£120 + VAT) Charities, NGOs, academics, students, trainee solicitors & pupils: 50% off third delegate when 3 book from the same organisation at the same time. Fees include refreshments and lunch.

This event is supported by Baker & Mckenzie, Doughty Street Chambers and Leigh Day.

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Block booking disounts are also now available for chambers and firms wishing to block book together for this event: