A prime example is the infected blood scandal, in which despite litigation and a public inquiry that is ongoing, many affected individuals do not have redress decades later.
Claimants tend to have an eye on redress mechanisms beyond litigation, such as public inquiries and reviews, due to issues around limitation, funding, caselaw and evidential challenges. The UK ‘is good at creating listening forums: 83 public inquiries have been opened since 1990’, Moore, Warmington and Parmar write, but whether lessons are learned and recommendations acted upon is less clear.
The COVID-19 Inquiry is one of the biggest inquiries to be held. As the authors assert, however, no matter how efficient an inquiry is, it’s up to the government of the day whether anything gets done.
The authors call for greater accountability and express support for the creation of a central redress agency, as recommended by the Cumberlege Report but subsequently rejected by the government.
