Latest news with #inquiry
BBC News
20 hours ago
- General
- BBC News
Bangor: Calls for safeguarding inquiry into cathedral
Two priests from a north Wales cathedral have called for an independent inquiry after two critical reports highlighted safeguarding concerns and misbehaviour reports highlighted complaints about a "culture in which sexual boundaries seemed blurred" at Bangor Cathedral, along with inappropriate language being used and alcohol consumed Dr John Prysor-Jones and the Very Rev Professor Gordon McPhate, from Bangor Cathedral, said the reports were "unsatisfactory" and with conclusions "based on impressions" rather than facts.A Church in Wales spokesperson said: "The matters raised in this correspondence will be carefully considered". Dr Prysor-Jones and Prof McPhate have written to Church in Wales bishops to complain that the summaries of the two reports published in May were "unsatisfactory".They said these summaries were "limited by narrow terms of reference... and did not make findings of fact, instead reaching conclusions based on impressions".The full reports have not been Prysor-Jones and Prof McPhate, who do preaching and pastoral work at the cathedral, have called for a formal inquiry into the diocese of Bangor and its cathedral since said the inquiry should be "assisted by advisers in organisational management, canon law, civil law, and criminal law".The Church in Wales has acknowledged safeguarding weaknesses, management practices lacking in rigour and transparency, and misconduct relating to alcohol use and sexual behaviour at Bangor calls for his resignation were made, the Most Rev Andrew John, who is both Archbishop of Wales and Bishop of Bangor, offered his "most heartfelt apology to any members of the cathedral community who have been hurt or who feel I have let them down".The Church in Wales said it had created an implementation group to ensure the issues are addressed. BBC-produced Newyddion S4C has been sent other letters by Church in Wales members outlining concerns about the situation at Bangor diocese and Cathedral, with one describing the situation in the Cathedral as "desperate" and another as "terrible".One member of the Bangor Cathedral congregation has called for the Archbishop of Wales to have his position as lead bishop for safeguarding revoked immediately due to the safeguarding failures acknowledged by the S4C requested an interview with the Archbishop of Wales to discuss the contents of, and reaction to the letters. A Church in Wales spokesperson said they were not conducting a short statement, they said: "We can confirm that letters have been received by the Bishops of the other dioceses of the Church in Wales regarding the Diocese of Bangor and its cathedral and that the matters raised in this correspondence will be carefully considered."
Zawya
4 days ago
- General
- Zawya
Justice Committee Chairperson Commends Appointment of Judge Khampepe to Head TRC Inquiry
The Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Justice and Constitutional Development, Mr Xola Nqola, is pleased to note the appointment of retired Constitutional Court Judge Sisi Khampepe as head of the judicial commission of inquiry to determine whether attempts were made to prevent the investigation and prosecution of apartheid-era crimes. Mr Nqola said the move to appoint Judge Khampepe is welcomed as survivours and families of victims can see some urgency from government on this matter. 'This is indeed a positive step. Too many families and survivours of apartheid-era crimes have waited to long for justice. 'Claims of attempts to prevent the investigation and prosecution of such crimes have been doing the rounds for years. The announcement by President Cyril Ramaphosa of the commission to investigate these claims, followed by the speedy appointment of the head of the inquiry, is indeed progress the country needed,' emphasised Mr Nqola. Yesterday, President Ramaphosa announced that Judge Khampepe will chair the commission. Retired Northern Cape Judge President Frans Diale Kgomo and Adv Andrea Gabriel SC will assist her. Mr Nqola further stated that the committee noted that the establishment of the commission of inquiry is part of an agreement reached in settlement discussions in a court application brought by families of victims of apartheid-era crimes. 'On our part, since the establishment of this committee in the 7th Parliament last year, we have held a few engagements with the National Prosecuting Authority to get updates on the progress of prosecuting TRC [Truth and Reconciliation Commission] matters. Earlier this month we were informed of positive progress by all the stakeholders that presented to the committee and the committee resolved to further monitor closely the commitment made to us. We are committed to ensure that justice is done without unnecessary delays,' said the Chairperson. Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Republic of South Africa: The Parliament.
RNZ News
5 days ago
- General
- RNZ News
Firefighters Union calls for independent inquiry into FENZ's complaints process
FENZ chief executive & national commander Kerry Gregory. Photo: RNZ / Marika Khabazi The Professional Firefighters' Union is calling for independent inquiry by the Auditor General into Fire and Emergency New Zealand's complaints process. Fire and Emergency New Zealand (FENZ) has apologised unreservedly to a former volunteer firefighter for failing to properly investigate a series of complaints. It has been nearly 10 years since Sarah Hullah made her first complaint to FENZ about sexual harassment. Now an 111-page independent report by Simon Mount KC, released on Wednesday, details 33 failings by FENZ over the way it handled her initial complaint, and several after that. These include failure to comply with its own processes, conflicts of interest, unreasonable delays, and a failure to learn from at least two previous, highly critical external reviews. FENZ chief executive and national commander Kerry Gregory said significant changes to the way complaints were managed had been made, including introducing an independent service that specialises in conflict resolution and complaint management. However, The Professional Firefighters Union secretary Wattie Watson told Nine to Noon that nothing had changed and Fire and Emergency's complaints system was neither independent, nor fair. "Many, many, many of those 33 findings of that report are still occurring today," she said. She said the Union was now calling for a proper inquiry into what has occurred. "The report into Sarah's case is a very good springboard for that because it shows - particularly from 2019 onwards - no matter what FENZ has put in place it has not worked, and it has not changed the fairness in the workplace whatsoever," she said. The Union wanted something similar to an Auditor General Inquiry. "There needs to be a really robust inquiry, I'd be interested to know what FENZ has spent on trying to not deal with Sarah's case. "We need an inquiry because this is utter mismanagement. The CEO and the Board need to be held to account, and the staff and volunteers at FENZ deserve a fair process to have their matters addressed," she said. National Secretary of the Professional Fire Fighters' Union Wattie Watson. Photo: Supplied/ Nudo Group The union had previously believed that FENZ could manage its own complaints process, but Watson said this report confirmed they could not and should not. "We now believe it has to be a completely independent external body to handle that process, and mainly because of the protections that are going on in management," Watson said. Watson said one of the key problems was that many of those working at FENZ were inexperienced because the bulk of employees were firefighters. "We have cases currently where the head of finance is going to be making a decision on whether the actions of someone in a hot fire situation acted appropriately in how they interacted with someone else at the scene," she said. Watson said the Union has no faith in FENZ and if an employee or volunteer makes a complaint against someone in higher management or high leadership, then they won't have a fair and proper process. "We have experience where there are managers that are subject to repeated complaints and are never investigated, in fact they are protected. "We have situations where management have coerced, pressured or put unreasonable restriction in place - particularly by a refusal to manage conflicts of interest, to make sure those complaints don't go anywhere else. "We've got examples where people have complained about the behaviours of managers, relatively high level managers, and yet they've ended up with disciplinary action against them," Watson said. FENZ chief executive and national commander Kerry Gregory said he apologised "publicly and unreservedly to Ms Hullah for the failure to properly investigate". He said FENZ had accepted all 33 findings, and separately, reached a resolution with Hullah. The organisation continued to work on a programme to change its culture, "to create a safer, more positive and inclusive environment for all our people. We are striving to become a different organisation". Already, significant changes had been made to how complaints were managed, including introducing an independent service that specialises in conflict resolution and complaint management. "Bullying, harassment and victimisation have no place in Fire and Emergency, and we take all allegations of any such behaviour very seriously. I am committed to creating an environment where everyone feels safe, and that any complaints are handled appropriately," he said. "I am confident that if complaints like those addressed in the review occurred today, they would be handled through a more robust and transparent process." He would not be drawn on whether people found at fault, whose names had been redacted from the report, had been moved out of their positions within FENZ. "The people involved haven't been given the tools to do it well, and the process didn't support them to do that well, so anyone who was involved through the 10-year period who may or may not still be in the organisation, wasn't necessarily well supported by the organisation as a whole." Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
Daily Mail
26-05-2025
- Politics
- Daily Mail
GRAHAM GRANT: Welcome to Scotland's biggest growth industry... the inquiries that cost taxpayers millions of pounds
The inquiry has long been a favoured standby of blundering politicians with their backs to the wall - ordering one can buy you valuable time. It means they can refuse to comment because a probe is under way - and naturally it would be wrong to pre-judge its outcome. But in Scotland there has been an explosion in statutory inquiries, to the extent that they have become the country's only growth industry. They have been good news for lawyers - their pockets lined at taxpayers' expense - but it has been clear for years that the costs have been allowed to run out of control. Belatedly, MSPs on the finance committee have got round to looking into the issue, after the total bill soared to £230million – and there's every sign it will continue to rise. That's enough to hire nearly 9,000 nurses or 7,300 police officers, or possibly build a ferry – so the stakes are high, particularly at a time of lean public finances when we're told that every penny is a prisoner. So, we now have an inquiry into inquiries - and if it's deemed not to have been robust enough then there might well be calls for yet another inquiry to look into it. A steady stream of inquiries has come to define devolution, spawning a permanently backward-looking political culture, trapped in endless introspection – though it's rare for heads to roll. The worth of some of these fact-finding exercises isn't in doubt, including the valuable work of the £95.3million Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry (SCAI), launched a decade ago. It has uncovered scandal after scandal, after putting religious orders, charities and private schools under the microscope. True, it took many years for survivors to win their fight for the probe, but it has triggered multiple police investigations and created a comprehensive record of abuse and neglect, helping current and future generations to protect children in care. No one knows when it will wrap up, or if they do they won't say, and in the meantime the costs keep ratcheting up. It is now at the centre of a separate probe by Jason Beer KC, instigated by the SCAI, after abuse survivor Kevin Sutherland was believed to have taken his own life. Last week, Professor Sandy Cameron, who chaired the Independent Jersey Care Inquiry, told MSPs that the country 'can't keep going like this', adding: 'We need to think about other ways of achieving justice.' The case for doing so becomes all the more pressing when you consider that long-running public inquiries have cost Scotland's beleaguered NHS more than £12million in the past four years alone. National Services Scotland (NSS), the administrative arm of NHS Scotland, admitted that it has had to fork out £9million in legal fees and £3.1million in staff costs since 2021 to respond to probes that include the Scottish Hospitals Inquiry and the Covid-19 probe. Meanwhile, the probe into disgraced NHS Tayside surgeon Sam Eljamel has cost £1 million before the inquiry has even begun. Inquiries are a recurring feature of political life, so that at any given point one is either going on, being demanded, urged, threatened or occasionally refused (if a call for one is rejected, there must be something really bad lurking in the closet). Between 1990 and 2024, the UK and devolved governments spent at least £1.5billion on completed public inquiries, according to the Institute for Government. The inquiry chaired by Lord Hardie into the disastrous £1billion Edinburgh trams project uncovered evidence of myriad failings and ineptitude, laying bare a catalogue of delays and organisational chaos that formed a damning indictment of local government incompetence. Yet the inquiry itself cost more than £13million and took nine years to publish its findings, despite Alex Salmond saying it would be 'swift and thorough'. Lord Hardie has now told Holyrood's finance committee that there is a perception that public money is being wasted because the findings of public inquiries 'sit on ministers' shelves gathering dust'. He spoke out as the cost of the troubled Sheku Bayoh Inquiry rose to £24.8million – up by £1million since the end of last year - though that figure does not include the cost of the inquiry to the public bodies involved, such as Police Scotland and the Crown Office. The true cost to the taxpayer - so far - is around £50million, and yet the inquiry, which began back in 2020, is under serious threat after the Scottish Police Federation (SPF) called for chairman Lord Bracadale to be ousted on the grounds of perceived bias. Mr Bayoh died in police custody in 2015 amid allegations of racism and the use of excessive force by the officers restraining him. Lord Bracadale, a retired High Court judge, has had five meetings with Mr Bayoh's grieving relatives 'to address issues relating to the welfare of the family members'. He will chair hearings next month into his own suitability to continue leading the probe – so we now have another situation where an inquiry is holding a mini-inquiry into itself. A decade on, it seems that any chance of finding out exactly what happened is slipping away, with the SPF, representing rank-and-file officers, threatening a judicial review to remove Lord Bracadale as chairman. This toxic mess shows the gap between political rhetoric when inquiries are launched - focusing on the need for rapid answers - and the bleak reality, as they become bogged down in bureaucracy and bitter battles. The inquiry which set the tone for the ongoing obsession with official probes was the one that examined the fiasco surrounding the building of the Scottish parliament, which cost more than £400million (the original price-tag was around £10million). Its chairman, the late Lord Fraser, who reported back only three weeks before the building opened in 2004, memorably concluded that 'the ancient walls of the Canongate have echoed only to the cry of 'it wisnae me'.' More than 20 years on, that remains a familiar refrain among bungling bureaucrats and their political masters. It's probably only a matter of time before some hapless Minster announces an inquiry into the ferries fiasco (750million and counting) Let us hope the bill for that is less than the boats cost to build. But there is a radical solution – if they didn't make so many mistakes, we wouldn't need so many inquiries, conducted at our expense. In the meantime, we're paying a steep price for their incompetence - and the bill keeps rising.
The Independent
25-05-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
Deputy PM Angela Rayner: ‘I don't want to be leader of the Labour Party'
Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner has quashed rumours that she is vying to become leader of the Labour Party, saying she has 'no desire' to take on the role. It follows speculation about a potential leadership challenge after the leak of a memo outlining apparent tax rise plans, alongside media briefings suggesting she could be demoted. In an interview with Trevor Phillips on Sunday (25 May), the deputy leader said she is 'honoured' to hold her current role and is not interested in becoming leader. Asked whether she could rule out ever becoming leader, she replied: 'Never.' Rayner also indicated that an inquiry is 'underway' into how the memo addressed to Chancellor Rachel Reeves was leaked.
