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INQUEST launches campaign for National Oversight Mechanism

On 27 June 2023, the charity INQUEST launched a campaign in Parliament called “No More Deaths”. The campaign is calling for a National Oversight Mechanism and is supported by over 45 organisations.

What is a National Oversight Mechanism?

A National Oversight Mechanism would be an independent public body responsible for collating, analysing and following-up on recommendations arising from inquests, public inquiries and other investigations into state-related deaths.

Why is it needed?

At the conclusion of public inquiries, inquests or other investigations into state-related deaths, recommendations are often made following a forensic examination of the issues in focus. These recommendations in theory have the ability to prompt significant change for wider society. However, too often these recommendations are not acted up by the relevant public bodies/ central Government and instead just gather dust.

A National Oversight Mechanism is designed to fill this accountability gap by ensuring that the recommendations arising out of these investigations are collated in one centralised system, are analysed alongside the responses from the public bodies to which they are addressed, and their progress is followed up on to ensure that, where necessary, pressure is put on the relevant public body/ Government department to address the concerns outlined in a given recommendation.

You can read INQUEST’s full case for a National Oversight Mechanism here.

Saunders Law supports the No More Deaths Campaign and the call for a National Oversight Mechanism. Through our work, we have witnessed firsthand how recommendations arising out of inquests and public inquiries have not been implemented. It is our firm view that the establishment of a National Oversight Mechanism would represent an important step towards ensuring that the circumstances of a state-related death are not repeated. The establishment of a National Oversight Mechanism would also provide a much-needed signal to bereaved families that the State can be held to account and will be transparent about preventing similar future deaths from taking place.

 

 

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