Items17The creator’s order
  1. 1Aberfan Disaster TribunalAberfan Disaster TribunalOn October 21, 1966 a colliery tip slid onto the Welsh village of Aberfan, killing 144 people, 116 of them children. The tribunal appointed five days later was blunt: blame rested upon the National Coal Board. Its more lasting finding was that Britain had no law dealing with the safety of tips at…0
  2. 2Scarman ReportScarman ReportLord Scarman's report on the Brixton disorders, published on November 25, 1981, argued that the violence grew out of social and economic disadvantage and called racial disadvantage a significant cause. It also rejected the idea that institutional racism existed in Britain, a conclusion the Stephen…0
  3. 3Taylor ReportTaylor ReportLord Justice Taylor's inquiry into the Hillsborough disaster is why a generation of fans has watched top-flight football sitting down. His interim report fixed on overcrowding as the cause; his final report, delivered in January 1990, went further and recommended all-seater grounds. The government…0
  4. 4Piper AlphaPiper AlphaLord Cullen's public inquiry into the disaster, reported November 1990 The fire on the North Sea platform in 1988 cost 167 lives. Cullen's report made 106 recommendations, and the Energy Secretary told Parliament all of them would be implemented as quickly as possible. Two changed offshore work…0
  5. 5Committee on Standards in Public LifeCommittee on Standards in Public LifeThe Nolan Committee's first report, published May 31, 1995 The committee under Lord Nolan produced something unusually durable: the Seven Principles of Public Life. First set out in that report, they apply to every public office holder and to private and voluntary bodies delivering services paid…0
  6. 6Scott ReportScott ReportSir Richard Scott's arms-to-Iraq inquiry, reported February 1996 The exports were the starting point, but Scott's lasting finding was about Parliament: ministers had not told it the guidelines on defense sales to Iraq had been revised, and so had failed in their duty of accountability. The answer…0
  7. 7Dunblane massacreDunblane massacreLord Cullen's public inquiry into the shootings, reported October 1996 This is the case where government went past its inquiry. Cullen examined the shootings at Dunblane Primary School on March 13, 1996 and proposed tighter handgun controls, but stopped short of an outright ban. When the report…0
  8. 8Murder of Stephen LawrenceMurder of Stephen LawrenceSir William Macpherson's Stephen Lawrence Inquiry, reported 1999 The 350-page report found the police investigation into the teenager's murder marred by professional incompetence, institutional racism and a failure of leadership. That phrase, which Scarman had refused to accept, entered the…0
  9. 9The Shipman InquiryThe Shipman InquiryDame Janet Smith's inquiry into the GP Harold Shipman found major flaws in death registration, the prescribing of drugs and the monitoring of doctors. The most serious, she wrote, was that death certification depended on the integrity and judgment of a single doctor. Proof that reform can take…0
  10. 10Murder of Victoria ClimbiéMurder of Victoria ClimbiéLord Laming's Victoria Climbié Inquiry, reported January 28, 2003 Laming's report ran to some 400 pages and made 108 recommendations. Its central finding, as the Health Secretary put it to MPs, was that this was not a failing on the part of any one service: each agency assumed another was meeting…0