A witness who is legally represented will ordinarily be expected to obtain assistance in drafting their statement from their recognised legal representative. A witness may draft their own statement or may seek assistance from a lawyer or other representative. Responding to a Request for a Witness Statementġ1. The Rule 9 Request will contain a description of the matters or issues to be covered by the written statement. Otherwise, the Rule 9 Request will be sent directly to the witness.ġ0. If a witness has appointed a qualified lawyer to act on their behalf and the Chair has designated the lawyer as the witness’s recognised legal representative, the Rule 9 Request will be sent to that legal representative. Where the Inquiry proposes to take evidence from a person or wishes to obtain further evidence from a witness who has already provided a statement, it will send that person a written request for evidence pursuant to Rule 9 of the Inquiry Rules 2006 ( Rule 9 Request).ĩ. Further, this Protocol may be amended from time to time, in which case an amended version will be published on the Inquiry website.Ĩ. It follows that, where the interests of justice and fairness so require, the Inquiry may need to depart from this Protocol. The procedures outlined below are not intended to cover every eventuality or every procedural issue that may arise. written witness statements conform to a common standard and are provided to the Inquiry in a form which will best enable it to understand the matters to which they relate.ħ. witnesses (and, where applicable, their legal representatives) understand the process by which the Inquiry will seek to obtain written witness statements andī. The purpose of this Protocol is to ensure that:Ī. a “witness” is a person from whom the Chair intends to take written or oral evidence.Ħ. “published” means made available on the Inquiry website, which is accessible by members of the public, or published as part of any interim or final report andĭ. “disclosed” means made available to core participants and (in some instances) to persons from whom the Inquiry proposes to take evidence, subject to a strict undertaking to the Inquiry of confidentiality by the recipient of the disclosure (and their recognised legal representative, if any), not to reveal the information to others Ĭ. a “core participant” is a person, an organisation or other entity with a significant interest in the Inquiry and is designated a Core Participant in the Inquiry pursuant to Rule 5 of the Inquiry Rules 2006 (see the Inquiry’s Core Participant Protocol) ī. All those who appear to be able to give relevant evidence will be asked to provide to the Inquiry a written statement which follows the format and structure for witness statements described in the Annex to this Protocol.Ī. The Inquiry does not undertake to accept evidence from every person who approaches it in this regard.Ĥ. If the Chair considers that a person may be able to give evidence that is likely to be of assistance in fulfilling the Inquiry’s Terms of Reference, the Solicitor to the Inquiry ( Solicitor) or someone acting on the Solicitor’s behalf will take steps to determine whether that person’s evidence might assist the Inquiry. The means by which a person can contact the Inquiry are set out on the Inquiry’s website (see Contact us).ģ. The Inquiry welcomes approaches from those who believe that they have relevant evidence to give. The Chair will decide whom to invite to give written or oral evidence (or both), irrespective of whether that person has been designated a core participant. This Protocol sets out the approach that will be taken by the Post Office Horizon IT Inquiry ( Inquiry) to the taking of witness statements.Ģ.
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