Questions and answers
Throughout the period of the Inquiry we have published a list of the questions most frequently put to the Inquiry Team. This list has been revised on a regular basis to reflect the different queries relating to different aspects of the Inquiry’s process and progress.
The questions have now been separated into three distinct areas to differentiate between questions about general aspects of the Inquiry and specific questions relating to Phase One (oral hearings) and Phase Two.
General Questions
- When was the Bristol Royal Infirmary Inquiry set up?
- What were its powers?
- Was it an independent Inquiry?
- When did the Inquiry start work?
- When did the Inquiry begin to collect evidence?
- When did the Inquiry open?
- What were the Inquiry’s objectives?
- Which cases did the Inquiry investigate?
- Did the Inquiry only examine those cases involving children who died?
- Did the Inquiry be looking at pre-operative and post-operative care?
- Did the Inquiry investigate adult surgery and child cases before 1984?
- Was the Inquiry like a trial?
- Was the Inquiry able to strike off or reinstate any doctors?
- Did the Inquiry have the power to discipline doctors and other staff?
- Did the Inquiry decide amounts of compensation?
- Who were the Chairman and Panel Members?
- When did the Inquiry begin the public hearings?
- What was the purpose of the second phase of the Inquiry?
- How were the aims of Phase Two to be met?
- When did the Phase Two seminars begin?
- Who attended the Phase Two seminars?
- Are there written transcripts of the Phase Two seminars?
- What happened at the end of Phase Two?
- How much did the Inquiry cost?
Phase One (oral hearings) Questions.
- How did the Inquiry hear oral evidence?
- How were the blocks of evidence organised?
- Which organisations and individuals did the Inquiry hear from?
- Were witnesses recalled to give further oral evidence?
- What was the role of the Inquiry Panel during the oral hearings?
- Who were the Inquiry’s barristers, and what was their role during Phase One?
- Did the Panel have specialist advice available to them?
- What was the role of legal representatives of individuals and organisations?
- How were witness statements submitted and what happened to them?
- Were people offered support when they gave oral evidence?
- How could people follow the Inquiry without travelling to Bristol?
- When did the Oral Hearings finish ?