Catalogue description Committee of Inquiry into the Provision and Co-ordination of Services to the Family of John George Auckland: Records

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Details of BN 91
Reference: BN 91
Title: Committee of Inquiry into the Provision and Co-ordination of Services to the Family of John George Auckland: Records
Description:

Records of the Committee of Inquiry into the Provision and Co-ordination of Services to the Family of John George Auckland.

The series includes records of the inquiry, public hearings, written submissions and drafts of the report.
Date: 1975
Held by: The National Archives, Kew
Legal status: Public Record(s)
Language: English
Creator:

Committee of Inquiry into the Provision and Co-ordination of Services to the Family of John George Auckland, 1975-1975
Physical description: 21 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 1988.
Selection and destruction information: Duplicates and press cuttings have been destroyed.
Accruals: Series is not accruing.
Administrative / biographical background:

In July 1974, J G Auckland killed his fifteen-month old daughter, having killed a previous infant daughter in June 1968. Following the trial in November 1974, the judge wrote to the Secretary of State for Social Services expressing his great concern that a man who had already been convicted of manslaughter of one of his children should have been allowed to take sole charge of three others.

As a consequence of this, in April 1975, the Secretary of State, Mrs Barbara Castle, appointed a committee of inquiry comprised of three members and a chairman, Paul Kennedy, QC. The Committee was required to inquire into and report on the provision and co-ordination of social services to the Auckland family by relevant local authorities and health services, and other persons or agencies.

Hearings of the committee were held in public during May, June and July 1975, in both London and Sheffield, and the committee's report was submitted to Mrs Castle in September of that year.

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