Catalogue description Committee of Inquiry into Complaints about Ashworth Hospital (Blom-Cooper Inquiry): Records

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Details of JA 7
Reference: JA 7
Title: Committee of Inquiry into Complaints about Ashworth Hospital (Blom-Cooper Inquiry): Records
Description:

This series contains records of the Committee of Inquiry into Complaints about Ashworth Hospital. Comprises transcripts of hearings, a copy of the complaints register, submissions to the inquiry, photographs of the hospital, and the final draft of the report.
Date: 1979-2001
Held by: The National Archives, Kew
Former reference in its original department: ASW, and AGV file series
Legal status: Public Record(s)
Language: English
Creator:

Committee of Inquiry into Complaints about Ashworth Hospital, 1991-1992

Department of Health, 1988-

Department of Health and Social Security, 1968-1988
Physical description: 139 file(s)
Access conditions: Open unless otherwise stated
Immediate source of acquisition:

In 2003 Department of Health
Custodial history: Transferred to the Department of Health in 1992
Accumulation dates: File series ran from 1991 to 1992
Selection and destruction information: These records come under sections 2.2.1.4 (administration of justice and maintenance of security) and, more particularly, 2.2.1.5 (formulation and delivery of social policies) of the PRO's Acquisition Policy. Duplicate material and copies of media coverage (including a videotape recording of a Twenty Twenty programme for Channel 4 television) have not been selected. Earlier drafts of the report, which show no evident substantive changes from the final report have not been selected.
Accruals: No future accruals expected
Administrative / biographical background:

The Committee of Inquiry into Complaints about Ashworth Hospital was set up in April 1991 under the chairmanship of Louis Blom-Cooper QC to investigate complaints, which had arisen following the death of a patient at Ashworth Special Hospital in 1988. The committee consisted of a chairman and three other members.

It was to inquire into allegations of ill-treatment and improper care of patients in four specific cases; the structure and management of the complaints system, and the progress of ten particular cases through the system; and the involvement of various authorities in the operation of the complaints system, including the police and the hospital advisory committee. The inquiry presented its report to the secretary of state for health in July 1992.

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