Schools: Radicalism

(asked on 11th January 2017) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, for what reasons a decision was taken to reveal the identities of whistleblowers in the Trojan Horse case in Birmingham; and what assessment her Department has made of the effect on the safety of those individuals and their families of that decision.


Answered by
Caroline Dinenage Portrait
Caroline Dinenage
This question was answered on 16th January 2017

We take the issue of witness anonymity extremely seriously.

The independent panel overseeing the teacher misconduct case of some of the individuals involved in the events related to Trojan Horse recently ordered the full disclosure of transcripts of interviews given to Peter Clarke. As a result of the independent panel’s direction, lawyers acting on behalf of NCTL wrote to witnesses to inform them of that decision, and stated that in the event that they had any comments or concerns in relation to the disclosure of their transcripts they should contact them. Since the direction, where we have written to witnesses and we have either not yet heard back from them or they have raised concerns, no disclosures have been made. We have informed the independent panel that a number of witnesses have raised concerns, and the panel has indicated that it wishes to consider the issue at a further hearing.

These issues are part of a set of complex legal proceedings and it would be inappropriate to comment further at this stage.

Reticulating Splines