Öpik Turns To Information Commissioner As Surrey Police Reject Deepcut Data Request

4.58.58pm UTC (GMT +0000) Wed 28th Jun 2006

There was anger today after Surrey Police rejected appeals to publish the Devon & Cornwall police report into Surrey police's investigation of four deaths at the Deepcut Army Barracks.

Lembit Öpik, constituency MP for Des and Doreen James, whose daughter Cheryl died at Deepcut in 1995, said the decision was 'a slap in the face for the Deepcut families' and that he would now appeal directly to the Information Commissioner to get access to the report.

The 150 page report was completed in August last year. Since then only a three page executive summary has been published. In October, Mr. Öpik applied to Surrey Police for the report to be published under the Freedom of Information Act. After his request was turned down, Mr. Opik appealed to the Chief Constable of Surrey Police, and learnt this week, six months later, that this appeal had been unsuccessful.

In turning down Mr. Opik's appeal, Surrey Police issued him with a 16 page redacted version of the Devon and Cornwall report, containing the information Surrey Police were 'willing to release to the public.'

Commenting, Mr. Opik said: "The document I've been sent is virtually useless. It describes some of the processes of the investigation, but doesn't even pretend to shed any light on the findings. It's hard to believe that the Police, an organization theoretically working FOR the people, can persistently withhold crucial data FROM the people, at a time when it's obviously in the public interest to publish that information.

"It makes a mockery of the Freedom of Information Act if, when push comes to shove, the old culture of secrecy can still be evoked to form a defensive ring round information which should already be in the public domain.

"Many people now believe there is something in that report which is so embarrassing to the Police that they dare not share it with the public. That's understandable, given how hard it appears to be to get anything meaningful disclosed at all. We are now going to appeal to the Information Commissioner to get access to this report."

Des James said today: "Needless to say my wife and I yet again feel very let down, and we are concerned that there now appears to be a coordinated refusal by the establishment to address what happened at the Deepcut army barracks.

"On more than one occasion Surrey Police have indicated to us that they would find a mechanism to allow disclosure, even at one point sending officers around the country to collect written agreement from witnesses that disclosure of their statement could be made. What happened to that exercise we don't know. Neither have Surrey Police told us how many witnesses actually DID agree to disclosure, or at what cost to the taxpayer did Surrey Police begin and then abort that strategy.

"As parents we want only to find out the truth of what happened to our daughter at the Deepcut camp. This Government has time and time again placed barriers in front of a public inquiry, inadequate initiatives that have served only to placate public opinion regarding Deepcut while not actually allowing any transparent and independent inquiry. Nicholas Blake QC conducted an extremely good but limited review of what was made available to him. The Blake Review cannot be considered an acceptable alternative to a public inquiry.

"Tony Blair stated last year that the difference between a democracy and a brutal regime was that in a democracy where there is wrongdoing we have accountability. There has been no accountability regarding the four deaths at Deepcut."

Geoff Gray, whose son, also Geoff, died at Deepcut in 2002, said: "It would appear to me that Bob Quick has used the FOIA to his own advantage. He has used the act to suppress information rather than release information.

"The redacted D&C report is less than useless. Not only do we not know how our children died, we don't know how the Police Force that investigated their deaths performed. How can Surrey Police release a report that has a blank conclusions page and expect us as families to accept that? Once again Surrey Police are going to puff their chests out and say what a wonderful job we did, without being tested in public."

ENDS

Notes:

In turning down Lembit Opik's appeal, Surrey Police issued him with a redacted version of the Devon and Cornwall report which contained the information they were 'willing to release to the public.' This version is 16 pages long. It contains the three-page executive summary, which had already been published.

Lembit Opik is MP for Montgomeryshire and Leader of the Welsh Liberal Democrats.