Catalogue description Crown Agents Tribunal: Evidence and Papers

The Crown Agents Tribunal was set up under the Tribunals of Inquiry (Evidence) Act 1921 to investigate certain aspects of the conduct of the Crown Agents for Overseas Governments and Administrations between 1967 and 1974.

On 23rd April 1975 a Committee of Inquiry under the chairmanship of Judge E S Fay, QC., was set up "to inquire into the circumstances which led to the Crown Agents requesting financial assistance from the Government". The Fay Committee's report was published on 1st December 1977 and it is the findings of this report that led to the appointment of the Crown Agents Tribunal.

The Tribunal was established on 1st March 1978 under the chairmanship of Sir David Powell Croom-Johnson and submitted its report on 31st March 1982. Its terms of reference were "to inquire to what extent there were lapses from accepted standards of commercial or professional conduct or of public administration in relation to the operations of the Crown Agents as financiers on own account in the years 1967-1974 described in the Report of the Committee of Inquiry on the Crown Agents (HC 48 of 1977)".