DM-18

Realistic timelines for non-statutory inquiries

Daniel Morgan Panel · The Report of the Daniel Morgan Independent Panel · Issued 15 June 2021 · Addressed to: Home Office

Government responseHome Office: Accepted (Jun 2023)

DeliveryNo statement from Home Office found

Recommendation, verbatim from the inquiry

●Inquiry recommendation, Volume 1

Prior to the establishment of any future non-statutory inquiries or panel, there should be an honest and full discussion between the relevant police force(s) and the sponsoring Government department, to enable a realistic, informed assessment of the nature and volume of documentation in all its forms, and of the scope and depth of the work required. Framework procedures, capable of being customised, for the disclosure of material to such panels should be available, so as to avoid excessive delays in reaching agreement for access to material. Deadlines should only be established when the relevant inquiry or panel has had the opportunity to review the programme of work it is required to do. Any such deadline should be supported with an analysis explaining how the projected deadline has been identified, and why that is a reasonable time within which the work should be completed.

Daniel Morgan Panel, The Report of the Daniel Morgan Independent Panel · 15 Jun 2021 Source PDF →

Published evidence summary

AI-generated evidence summary

In its June 2023 response presented to Parliament, the Home Office agreed that targets or deadlines set within an inquiry's terms of reference should be determined in consultation with the inquiry's chair and should have regard for the scale of the task (Home Office response, Jun 2023). The record holds no update since the Home Office's response of June 2023 (Home Office response, Jun 2023).

Sources

AI-generated summary of the record on this page, checked by a second model and automatic checks, 26 Sep 2026.

Government response

●Home Office · Accepted · 15 Jun 2023

Words of: Home Office, Government response to the report of the Daniel Morgan Independent Panel (CP 857), presented to Parliament by the Home Secretary, 15 June 2023

2.3.15. Finally, the Panel considered in its report that the deadline set for its work within its terms of reference was unrealistic and set without a detailed understanding of the work to be delivered. The Panel’s Terms of Reference stated that the Panel’s work would be done within a year. There was no expectation of the difficulties and delays which the Panel would encounter in accessing the documentation, and the volume of material which was in excess of a million pages. The government agrees that targets or deadlines set within an inquiry’s terms of reference should be in consultation with the inquiry’s chair and should have regard for the scale of the task.

Extract from: Government response to the report of the Daniel Morgan Independent Panel

Delivery

No statement on delivery from Home Office has been found in the sources searched. This is separate from the response above.

How this page is built

The recommendation and the government responses are verbatim from primary documents. Delivery statements and other bodies' findings are shown in their own words, each with its source. The summary is written by this site and labelled as such. The Index does not paraphrase sources or characterise intent; it records what has been published.