PRESS NOTICE 07/05 26TH OCTOBER 2007

The Billy Wright Inquiry – Statement by the Inquiry Panel

At an Inquiry Hearing on Monday 17 September 2007 at Banbridge, Northern Ireland, the Inquiry Chairman gave an explanation of the background to the recovery of documentation from the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) and referred to the fact that, at that time, the Inquiry was concerned about what appeared to be significant gaps in the material that had been provided by the PSNI that remained outstanding.

The Inquiry had been informed at that time that the Chief Constable of the PSNI, Sir Hugh Orde, of his own volition, had instigated a review to examine the question of whether the Inquiry had received all of the information it had sought under notices served on him since November 2005. The Inquiry had also been given to understand that additional intelligence materials would be provided as a result of that review.

At the Hearing on 17 September, the Inquiry Chairman, Lord MacLean, made it clear that the PSNI had until Monday 15 October to provide the Inquiry with a formal response on the outcome of that review; provide a full response to the notices served on the PSNI since November 2005; and deal with all other outstanding queries.  If they did not do that the Inquiry Chairman said that the Inquiry Panel would have no alternative but to publish an Interim Report dealing with the PSNI’s provision of material to, and co-operation with, the Inquiry.

The Inquiry has now received a report of former Assistant Chief Constable, Sam Kinkaid, on the PSNI documentation.  It is headed as a report to the Inquiry, although from what is stated above, it is clear that this review had been put in place before the Inquiry’s hearing on 17 September and was not something requested by the Inquiry. In fact the PSNI had previously advised the Inquiry that matters in relation to the notices that had been served were closed.

Having carefully examined the contents of Mr Kinkaid’s report, the Inquiry Panel is not satisfied that it comprises a full response to the Notices served on the PSNI since November 2005 or that it deals with all outstanding queries. It does not provide any new or additional material of import and has not led to the production of specific intelligence documents that have been sought by the Inquiry.  Accordingly, the Panel has decided that it must now prepare and publish an Interim Report as referred to above. The PSNI have been notified of the position.

The Inquiry’s Interim Report will take some time to prepare as it must deal with the background to the recovery of documentation from the PSNI, which goes back to 2005.  It is expected that the Report will be prepared before the end of this year and should be ready for publication early in 2008.  However, in accordance with the Inquiries Act 2005, there has to be some consultation with the Northern Ireland Office regarding publication of the Report. 

The Panel considers that it would not be appropriate to resume full Hearings before their Interim Report is published since it will give a context to the intelligence evidence that it is to be led in the Inquiry. In those circumstances, it is unlikely that full Hearings will be able to resume before January 2008 and it may be in the latter half of that month.  It is hoped that once Hearings do resume, the Inquiry will be able to run its Hearings without any further interruption.

The Billy Wright Inquiry Panel.

25 October 2007.

Any questions resulting from this Press Notice should be addressed to the Secretary of the Inquiry.

Contact details:

Mrs Oonagh McIntosh
Conference House
152, Morrison Street
The Exchange
Edinburgh
EH3 8EB

Tel:  0131 248 2405

E-mail:  info@billywrightinquiry.org