PUBLIC NOTICE
CALL FOR EVIDENCE
The Penrose Inquiry is an independent public inquiry under the Inquiries Act 2005, chaired by the Right Honourable Lord Penrose. The Inquiry will investigate the circumstances in which patients treated by the NHS in Scotland contracted Hepatitis C, HIV, or both, from blood or blood products.
Lord Penrose is now ingathering documents falling within the Terms of Reference. He invites all persons and organisations who hold such documents, and who wish to provide them to the Inquiry, to contact the Inquiry Secretary to discuss the documents held and the best means of producing them.
At this stage, Lord Penrose also wishes the Inquiry team to take statements from patients who contracted Hepatitis C and/or HIV through receiving blood and/or blood products administered by the NHS in Scotland. Lord Penrose also wishes statements to be taken from the relatives of such patients. He therefore invites all such persons who wish to provide a statement to contact the Inquiry Secretary. Other interested parties, outwith these groups, will be contacted in due course.
It is envisaged that statements will be taken by a member of the Inquiry team at its offices in Edinburgh or another convenient place. Witnesses will be sent beforehand a list of issues to be covered in the statement. However this will not be definitive and witnesses may raise other relevant issues. Witnesses may be eligible for compensation for loss of time and/or reimbursement of travel and subsistence expenses incurred in providing a statement. Steps will, of course, be taken to ensure that a witness’s personal details remain confidential.
Details of the procedures for providing documents and witness statements to the Inquiry are available at:
www.penroseinquiry.org.uk
or by contacting the Inquiry Secretary:
Maria McCann
Secretary to the Penrose Inquiry
44 Drumsheugh Gardens
Edinburgh
EH3 7SW
0131 528 5221
Email: info@penroseinquiry.org.uk
