Baroness Chakrabarti (Lab)

My Lords, I have Amendments 12 and 14 in this group, on the slightly technical but vital issue of the service of compliance directions and inquiries. Clause 3(4) and Schedule 1 currently provide for compliance directions to make the Clause 2(4) duty of candour and assistance work in practice. Although the current draft has provisions for the service of these directions in non-statutory inquiries, it has none for inquiries under the Inquiries Act 2005. The general provisions for the service of documents under the Inquiries Act have proved deficient in a number of inquiries. Some of those inquiries have alerted the Government so that the Bill can be used to rectify the problems. Indeed, a recent judicial review established key principles on extraterritorial application to prevent former officials avoiding compliance with inquiries simply by going abroad. Amendment 12 and its partner, Amendment 14, would rectify the ongoing problems and provide appropriate provisions in statutory inquiries, as for non-statutory inquiries. These amendments come from the Hillsborough Law Now campaign and are supported by the cross-party expert law reform group Justice. I am particularly grateful to the veteran public inquiry lawyer Peter Weatherby KC for his expert advice in their formulation.