News
Greater transparency in Freedom of Information
The Freedom of Information Act will be extended to cover four more public bodies and increase the public's right to access information, Justice Minister Michael Wills announced today.
The bodies covered by the change are: the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO), the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS), the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) and Academy Trusts - the bodies responsible for Academy Schools.
Michael Wills said:
‘Since we introduced the Freedom of Information Act (FOI) there has been a major and welcome increase in the amount of information that the public have access to. This has transformed our politics, making Government and other public organisations far more open and transparent, and answerable to UK citizens.
‘Today's changes will increase this transparency and openness. The organisations we will add to the Act make key decisions which affect the lives of millions of people across the country. It is only right that they are also subject to the FOI Act and the additional accountability it brings to decision-making.'
The changes are expected to come into force in October 2011 and are in response to a consultation held in 2007-08. The Government began further consultation with the four bodies involved in July 2009.
The Government is also considering extending the scope of the FOI Act further still to include additional bodies, and will take forward further consultation with bodies such as Network Rail and utility companies.
Today's announcement builds on other recent initiatives to improve access to information. These include reducing the period after which Government records become available to the public from 30 years to 20 years, and the launch of www.data.gov.uk in January 2010 which provided the public with easier access to large amounts of public sector data.
Notes to editors
1.The Act will be extended by secondary legislation: an Order made under Section 5 of the Freedom of Information Act.
2.The relevant order will be laid as soon as practicable in the next parliamentary session. It is subject to the affirmative procedure and so will be subject to debate in both Houses of Parliament.
3.The commencement date for the Order will be October 2011. This will allow time for the nominated bodies to prepare for their inclusion in the Act - for example to establish processes for responding to requests under the Act and to put in place a publication scheme.
4.For more information contact the Ministry of Justice press office on 020 3334 3536 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 020 3334 3536 end_of_the_skype_highlighting.
CPS Barrister Admits £20,000 Bribe
30-Jun-10
Lawyer used position to discontinue SOCA case set up in sting operation...
A senior Crown Prosecution Service barrister shared a £20,000 bribe to drop a case against a man he believed to be guilty, a court has been told.
The bribe was paid to Sarfraz Ibrahim by an undercover police officer posing as a criminal guilty of assault as part of an elaborate sting set up by the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA).
Ibrahim, 51, of Cardiff, who had been a lawyer for 19 years, admitted corruption, attempting to pervert the course of justice and misconduct in public office.
His co-defendant, Saifur Rahman Khan, 37, also of Cardiff, went on trial today accused of aiding and abetting misconduct in public office and attempting to pervert the course of justice. He denies the offences.
The jury in today's trial heard that in the summer of 2008 the barrister and his friend Khan, who ran a property letting agency, were spotted meeting two cocaine dealers at a service station on the M4 in south Wales. Jonathan Laidlaw, prosecuting, said the meeting triggered "anxiety" about Ibrahim, who was the CPS trials unit chief in Gwent, south Wales.
"Ibrahim's position as a barrister working for the Crown Prosecution Service made that anxiety all the more acute," said Laidlaw.
Soca created a fictional scenario "to test whether he [Ibrahim] was prepared to act corruptly and whether Khan was ready to assist in such a venture".
An undercover officer posing as a businessman told Khan that the arrest of his employee, Nick Baker, was causing problems. Khan allegedly told him his friend worked for the CPS and could ensure that Baker would not be charged.
When Baker's bogus file came before Ibrahim, the CPS barrister recommended that no further action be taken.
An undercover Soca officer, posing as a businessman named Tariq, approached Khan saying he wanted to rent rooms for an employee called Nick Baker, Laidlaw said. Baker, also an undercover officer, took up the rooms in March last year.
Two months later police staged a raid of Baker's rooms and arrested him.
"They actually broke down the door to the flat that Nick Baker had rented and took him away and questioned him about an assault," said Laidlaw.
Soon after, Tariq dropped in to see Khan and talked about the problems the arrest of his employee had caused.
Khan is alleged to have told Tariq that a friend of his worked for the CPS. Khan allegedly explained that if the case came to his friend and he recommended no charge "then it is no charge. Understand? He has that power."
In June last year Khan asked to see Baker. The two men met, at which point the latter confessed the assault allegation was true, it is claimed.
Khan allegedly said of Ibrahim to Baker: "He is the one that says that you have got a case, you know, or have not got a case. You understand?"
Laidlaw told the court that later the same month Khan and Ibrahim met Baker at Mermaid Quay, in Cardiff Bay. During the meeting Baker made it "perfectly clear that he had assaulted the victim", the jury heard.
Laidlaw said: "Ibrahim told Nick, 'The case is going nowhere.'"
Ibrahim went on to explain that he would not normally be responsible for reviewing such cases but that he could "manoeuvre it". Once he had control of the file he would be able to recommend that no further action was taken.
Ibrahim told the undercover officer that if he did that, then afterwards, "I do not know you."
Next Ibrahim told Baker to write in complaining at the slowness with which his case was proceeding. This allowed him to approach the police officer responsible for the file, who was aware of the undercover operation, and ask for it.
In July last year the bogus file containing Baker's fictional case was delivered to Ibrahim while he was at Cardiff Crown Court.
The CPS barrister recommended no further action (NFA) should be taken, telling the case officer: "Because of evidential difficulties the file was marked NFA."
Laidlaw alleged Khan and Baker later met at the Hilton hotel in Cardiff to discuss how Ibrahim should be rewarded and £20,000 in cash was handed over, it was alleged. Khan retained half, it was claimed.
After Ibrahim's arrest police discovered the lawyer had debts of almost £1m.
Laidlaw said Khan would claim in his defence that he had been "manipulated to act in a manner other than he would normally" by the police.
The Khan trial continues.
Dowson and Others v The Chief Constable of Northumbria Police.
A civil trial started on Monday 14th June - 11am - at the Newcastle Upon Tyne District of the High Court surrounding 6 former and still serving Northumbria Police officers who are claiming damages from the Chief Constable for harassment and bullying.
Mr Justice Simon, at a preliminary hearing on 27th May, ordered that the opening of these cases should take place in public and has lifted press restrictions previously requested by Northumbria Police.
Ralli are representing the claimants.
For all media enquiries please contact Andrew Wigmore - 07958 913771
Met officer scapegoated in the Victoria Climbie inquiry finally clears his name
By Eileen Fairweather
In the clear: DCI Philip Wheeler endured a ten-year battle with the Met to salvage his reputation. He admits he felt 'driven into the abyss' by the deceit of his colleagues
Detective Chief Inspector Philip Wheeler felt paralysed by shock when the woman hurled black gloss paint in his face. It was January 10, 2002, and he had just started giving evidence to Lord Laming's inquiry into the murder of Victoria Climbie.
Wheeler had been based at North West London Police Murder Squad at the time of the eight-year-old's death in 2000. He had been describing to the inquiry a report he wrote warning his superiors that child protection locally was not being properly supervised. Then his assailant struck.
He says: 'Everyone was so stunned that no one grabbed her until she reached the door, when a sergeant shouted, "Arrest that woman."'
After the attack he was rushed to hospital. The woman, Lauretta Okocha, was subsequently charged with assault and sent to a mental hospital.
Wheeler was signed off work. During his enforced break from giving evidence to the inquiry, colleagues made him the scapegoat for police failings. He says he was 'framed' when, in fact, he was the officer who rang alarm bells.
It is only now, ten years later - his health and career ruined - that he has been able to clear his name.
Philip Leslie Wheeler became Area DCI at London's North West Crime Area's Murder Squad in February 1999, a year before the murder of Victoria Climbie.
Wheeler had previously run Camden's child protection team where he had earned a fine reputation. In February 1999, the judge at the Old Bailey trial of Australian nanny Louise Sullivan, who shook a baby in her care to death, described his work as 'the most thorough investigation ever to come before me'.
But his new post was a strange, rag-bag job. The Area DCI ran paid informants, surveillance operations, officer training, firearms licensing, armoury security and, almost as an after-thought, also did the administration for seven outlying child protection teams.
The North West Area included inner-city Tottenham and Brent, plagued by drugs. It dealt with 92 murders that year. Wheeler knew child protection desperately needed more attention. Challenges included child prostitution rings, the use of children as drugs 'mules', and trafficking.
Many officers needed more specialist training. They had isolated offices, poor computer facilities and a high staff turnover. One senior officer was having a breakdown.
Wheeler knew this was dangerous and on January 21, 2000 - five weeks before Victoria's death - submitted a four-page report to a senior officer with responsibility for child protection, Detective Chief Superintendent David Cox, insisting that North West Area needed a full-time DCI coordinating child protection. He respectfully proposed himself for the job.
DCS David Cox, now retired, scribbled back to Wheeler: 'Such is the lot of the Area DCI.'
Victoria Climbie died in St Mary's Hospital, Paddington, at 3.15pm on February 25, 2000, from malnutrition and hypothermia. Doctors discovered 128 injuries on the child's emaciated body, inflicted by her great-aunt Marie-Therese Kouao and her lover Carl Manning, who beat her with sticks and belts to 'exorcise devils'.
Wheeler, a father of three, was at home on annual leave when he learned of Victoria's death. He offered to cancel his leave. He was not invited to work on the murder inquiry - a fact that he says 'underlines that I had no operational responsibility for child protection' - but was asked to assess what had gone wrong.
He was sent into the Haringey child protection team and within a fortnight had produced a devastating report that described demoralised teams 'bereft' of basic skills, training and supervision. He sent it to his superiors and finally management agreed that a fulltime DCI was crucial in child protection. Wheeler was selected.
Betrayed: Victoria Climbie, who died in 2000
A chastened Scotland Yard provided long-overdue resources and set up a dedicated child protection command.
On January 12, 2001, Kouao and Manning were sentenced to life imprisonment at the Old Bailey for murder.
Wheeler was by then uneasy about a series of complaints made about him by a senior officer. There were allegations that he had cheated on expenses and claims that he was lazy.
The complaints were rejected but Wheeler's lawyers later discovered that a file detailing these unsubstantiated complaints had been given to Lord Laming. Wheeler feared he was being 'set up' and left the child protection job for a post with Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary.
Victoria Climbie had been failed by London's police, hospitals and social services, having several times come to their attention. A public inquiry was launched. Giving evidence, Wheeler acknowledged that the Haringey Squad had handled Victoria's-case in a 'totally unacceptable' way. But then he was attacked by the paint-throwing woman.
The next day, January 11, 2002, Wheeler's former boss, Detective Superintendent Susan Akers, gave evidence instead of him. She is now a Deputy Assistant Commissioner in the Metropolitan Police. Akers denied Wheeler's claim that he had wanted, but was denied, real power over the local child protection teams.
Neil Garnham QC, counsel to the inquiry, asked her whether his evidence meant that 'Mr Wheeler is simply lying'. 'Yes,' Akers replied, 'I am afraid it does.'
While Wheeler recovered at home, two more senior officers gave evidence. They implied he had lied. Det Supt Gary Copson - now a Commander - had taken over from Akers three months before Victoria's death. He described Wheeler as unmanageable.
Wheeler was incredulous - he claims he'd hardly ever seen Copson at HQ because he was often away working on a post-doctoral thesis.
Every night the fax machine in Wheeler's home spewed out faxes from the inquiry detailing the day's claims about him.
'My wife is an ex-sergeant, but she would bring them to me in tears,' says Wheeler. 'I am an ex-teacher, I work with troubled kids in my spare time. I have three children of my own and I have been a school governor. I've worked on and advised on hundreds of child abuse cases and murders. Why was the truth being twisted?'
His belief is that, because of public outrage over the case, senior officers recognised that someone was going to have to be 'sacrificed'. By the time he returned to the inquiry, the die had, effectively, been cast.
'I had never expected this, so I didn't even have proper legal representation or the paperwork proving that I was, in fact, a whistleblower,' he says. 'I thought Laming would believe I raised the alarm.'
Fresh-faced: Philip Wheeler as a new police recruit in the Seventies
But Lord Laming had been told by another officer that Wheeler wrote his reports after the event. Wheeler had moved office and although he searched frantically for the originals, could not prove when he wrote them.
Months later he found original copies and police logs confirming their receipt by management but by then it was too late - the inquiry was no longer accepting evidence.
When Lord Laming finally published his 250,000-word report in January 2003, Wheeler was abroad. 'My lawyer read out the sections about me. I felt physically ill. Laming had branded me a liar.'
In Laming's report he accused Wheeler of ignoring the teams' problems: 'He should then have brought this information to the attention of more senior officers. His failure to do so means, in my view, that he must assume a great deal of responsibility.'
The repercussions were immediate. Wheeler was ordered by Sir Ronnie Flanagan, the Police Inspectorate's head, to leave his post. The Met's Directorate of Professional Standards, now headed by Det Supt Akers, authorised disciplinary action against Wheeler. In May 2005, his disciplinary hearing began at Tintagel House by the Thames.
'I queued beforehand in the canteen for tea, and a very senior officer joined me. He said quietly, "Phil, the Climbies [Victoria's parents] want a scalp from the senior management team, and you're it." He was tipping me off.'
His ordeal lasted five weeks. Several senior officers who were incensed by the Met's treatment of a highly regarded colleague gave evidence for Wheeler. Det Supt Stephen Hobbs, the senior investigating officer in the Climbie murder inquiry, said Wheeler had done 'magnificent work' and was 'a really good, honest and hardworking officer'.
Det Supt Michael McDonagh said: 'His integrity and honesty in my opinion is beyond doubt.' Meanwhile Det Supt John Sweeney described Wheeler similarly: 'Extremely conscientious, very capable'.
The back-tracking began. Officers who had testified against Wheeler to Laming took a different tack when interviewed under caution. The disciplinary hearing represented more legally stringent proceedings than the public inquiry.
Commander Akers now conceded that Wheeler had told the truth. DCS Cox agreed he did an 'excellent job'.
Det Supt Copson had to disclose emails, unavailable during Laming's inquiry, which confirmed the management structure at that time, making it clear that Wheeler did not have operational responsibility for child protection.
Although Commander Cressida Dick, who was the 'gold commander' in charge on the day when Brazilian Jean Charles de Menezes was shot at Stockwell Tube station on July 22, 2005, found Wheeler guilty of two charges of dereliction of duty, his punishment - a caution - was the most lenient allowed. However, he was sidelined.
'I couldn't get an operational post,' he says. 'Instead I was asked to write papers on things like the theft of satnavs. I worked from my laptop in the Yard's library or at home. It was degrading and an obscene waste of public money.'
He decided to continue his pioneering work on shaken baby syndrome. Professor David Chadwick serves with Wheeler on the International Advisory Board of America's National Centre For Shaken Baby Syndrome, and describes him as 'in the top tier of law enforcement child abuse experts in the world'.
Wheeler's personal nadir came when London was bombed by Islamic extremists on July 7, 2005, and 56 people died.
'When the first bombs went off I had just got out of Euston Station. I sped to the Yard. I told personnel that I was a DCI doing nothing and that I would do anything to help, even make the tea. But I wasn't allowed to do a thing. I felt terrible watching as people ran through the corridors of the Yard.'
How London's Evening Standard reported that DCI Wheeler was ordered to leave his post
Wheeler is a plain-speaking Northerner and does not readily discuss feelings. But he admits he was devastated at being 'framed' and refused work. 'I felt driven to the abyss. I lay in bed many times unable to sleep and thought of Dr David Kelly's desperation. Of course, I would never do anything stupid. But in the small hours ... .' He trails off.
He appealed to the Assistant Commissioner, Stephen House, against his dereliction of duty charges but House turned down his appeal, in March 2006.
Wheeler obtained a judicial review. Mr Justice Stanley Burnton said: 'I accept the defence points that in several written reports Mr Wheeler brought the child protection team issues to the notice of his senior officers.'
The High Court therefore ruled in February 2008 that Wheeler had been unfairly treated, the Assistant Commissioner 'not having addressed the real issue raised by Mr Wheeler', namely that he rang alarms but received no backing.
That should have been that but, extraordinarily, the Met decided to have the case against Wheeler reheard by another senior officer.
The Police Federation refused to fund Wheeler further. 'They said I'd get nowhere because I'm a white, married, middle-class male,' he says.
Fortunately, his two QCs from Furnival Chambers offered to represent him free of charge. According to the Met's own discipline regulations, the hearing was meant to conclude within 60 days. Instead it took two years to arrange, as various Assistant Commissioners turned it down.
In September 2008, Wheeler collapsed outside Scotland Yard. Doctors found he had multiple myelomia, a rare form of bone-thinning blood cancer. Since then he has had chemotherapy and a stem-cell transplant. He returned to work part-time.
The Met finally persuaded someone to hear its case against Wheeler. Shortly before Christmas, between hospital appointments, Wheeler gave evidence to Sara Thornton, Chief Constable of Thames Valley Police.
Wheeler says: 'Two weeks ago my wonderful solicitor Tom Brownlow, who has also represented me for nothing for the past two years, rang and said, "Crack open the beers." '
Thornton had overturned both charges of dereliction of duty. She noted: 'It emerged in the course of my review meeting that some of the evidence given by witnesses to Lord Laming's inquiry had not subsequently been repeated during the course of the misconduct hearing.'
So after a decade-long battle, the High Court and Chief Constable of an outside force have both confirmed DCI Wheeler's innocence.
Curiously, the witness statements given to Lord Laming's inquiry were recently removed from the internet.
'I got clobbered and it has just about destroyed my career and my health,' he says. 'They have dragged this out for ten years, hoping I'd retire - or die.
'But the Met won't get better until it faces and investigates its problems. This is not the police family I joined, and to which I gave my life.'
DCI Wheeler has not received any payment for this interview. The Mail on Sunday has made a donation on his behalf to the Metropolitan & City Police Orphans Fund.
PC sues police chief over vote-rigging claims
Published Date: 08 December 2009
A SERVING police officer is suing South Yorkshire's chief constable Med Hughes over claims he suffered depression and anxiety after losing a union election which was rigged by colleagues.
PC Tom Goodhill claims he lost the South Yorkshire Police Federation election for the role of joint branch board secretary after colleagues destroyed votes in his favour and substituted them with papers for another candidate who went on to win.
Following the election PC Goodhill made a formal complaint, and South Yorkshire Police conducted an internal investigation.
But although it was found the election had been rigged, disciplinary proceedings were never brought and no-one was ever charged with a criminal offence.
PC Goodhill is suing chief constable Meredydd Hughes for 'misfeance in public office'.
He claims the vote-rigging was deliberate, officers acted dishonestly, and they benefited financially by rigging the vote.
He also claims he lost out financially for losing an election he should have won, his complaint was inadequately investigated, and the chief constable failed to apologise.
He is seeking damages and interest.
Sheffield County Court heard PC Goodhill stood against Inspector Gary West for the full-time position of joint branch board secretary in January 2005.
Stephen Simblet, for the complainant, said the electorate was made up of 30 police officers - all South Yorkshire Police Federation officials.
Ballot papers were posted out and a ballot box was left at Maltby Police Station so officers could return their completed papers.
Mr Simblet said PC Goodhill was expected to win the election and a number of officers had told him they would be voting for him. But he claims the weekend before the ballot closed Insp West went to the Police Federation offices at Maltby to do some work.
"The complainant will be saying it was extremely rare for Inspector West to come in at the weekend and will be inviting your honour to infer this was not quite as straightforward as Inspector West would report it to be," Mr Simblet told the judge.
The declared result was 17 votes for Inspector West and nine for PC Goodhill.
Afterwards PC Goodhill was approached by more than nine officers who all told him they had voted for him.
In cross examination PC Goodhill accepted his election campaign had become personal against Insp West.
The case continues.
