Publication of Local Authority Reports
A project to consider whether changes were needed in the law relating to inquiries undertaken by local authorities. We are currently awaiting the Government's response to our recommendations.
We published a consultation paper The Publication of Local Authority Reports in April 2002 (CP163).
The final report, In the Public Interest: Publication of Local Authority Reports together with a draft bill was published in July 2004 (Law Com 289).
In February 2000 Sir Ronald Waterhouse published the results of the inquiry he chaired into the abuse of children in council homes in North Wales. He was concerned there might be circumstances where local authorities might feel unduly constrained by threat of legal action or loss of insurance cover from making public the results of inquiries conducted by them, or on their behalf. As a result, we were asked to look at the legal issues.
In our report, we made two principal recommendations:
A new defence to claims in defamation
Where a local authority makes public a report of an inquiry into a failure in local authority services, the authority should be able to rely on a new defence to any claim in defamation. But the defence would only be available if either the publishing authority is satisfied that the inquiry and report were fair, or they were in fact fair.
A new statutory power of inquiry for local authorities.
The local authority would have the power to establish an inquiry, which could itself apply to the High Court for an order compelling a witness to give evidence. This would achieve a balance between enabling democratically elected bodies to account to their electorate for failures in performance through an effective inquiry, but without putting powers of compulsion in the hands of a non-judicial body.
For more information, contact the public law team or go to the team page.
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