UNITED KINGDOM
Daily Mail
By REBECCA CAMBER and IAN DRURY FOR THE DAILY MAIL
The beleaguered child abuse inquiry faced a new secrecy row last night as it was accused of gagging lawyers from talking to MPs about why they have quit.
The Home Affairs Select Committee has requested written evidence from seven lawyers who have resigned from Britain’s biggest public inquiry.
But the Mail has learnt that the barristers have been prevented from speaking out under contractual rules. The inquiry has refused to waive legal privilege, which prevents all communications between a lawyer and their client from being disclosed without the permission of the client, which in this case is the inquiry.
According to a source, three out of four lawyers who have responded to the committee so far, say they cannot talk about their time there in detail due to legal privilege rules.
But one senior barrister Hugh Davies, QC, is said to be so frustrated that he has written a strongly-worded critique of its conduct and his views on how complaints by staff should have been handled.
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