From: "Kevin McGinty" <Kevin.McGinty@attorneygeneral>
To: <stephen.frost@>
Sent: Monday, July 19, 2010 2:19 PM
Subject: Dr David Kelly
Dear Dr Frost,
Your email with its attachments of 2nd July has been forwarded to me as
I will advise the Attorney General in due course on the exercise of his
powers.
The Attorney General has no power to order an inquest himself. Only the
High Court can order a new inquest and it does so on application by the
Attorney General or by another with the consent of the Attorney General.
The Attorney General can only make an application if he has sufficient
evidence in an admissible form to persuade the Court that the conditions
set out in section 13 of the Coroners Act 1988 for a new inquest are
met. The Act, which gives the Attorney General this function does not
provide him with investigatory powers and he cannot investigate matters
himself.
As you know, the Lord Chancellor is currently considering whether to
release medical evidence surrounding the death to the group of doctors
(of which I believe you are one) that are calling for a new inquest. If
that evidence is released the Attorney General would expect an
application to be made to him in due course by the solicitors that have
been instructed, Leigh Day & Co. If the Lord Chancellor does not
release the material, or all of it, the Attorney General will consider
with Ministers what other options may be open to him.
In the meantime, I would be greatly assisted by seeing the report to the
Coroner that you mentioned.
Your sincerely
Kevin McGinty
Attorney General's Office
020 7271 ....
"The Act, which gives the Attorney General this function does not
ReplyDeleteprovide him with investigatory powers and he cannot investigate matters himself."
And yet the AG said in his statement on 9 June 2011 "In the light of the public interest in this case, I have taken the very unusual step of carrying out my own investigation into whether an inquest is necessary or desirable in the public interest"