Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, for what reason Hugh Powell was appointed to help conduct the Heywood Review in 2014; what role Mr Powell had in the conduct of that Review; and what steps were taken to ensure that no conflict of interest affected, or might be seen to affect, the conduct or findings of that review.

His Majesty’s Government acknowledges the strength of feeling regarding the events of 1984.

In 2014, the then Cabinet Secretary, the late Lord Heywood of Whitehall, commissioned Hugh Powell as Deputy National Security Adviser to coordinate a team of Whitehall officials to establish the extent of British involvement in the Indian Army’s operation at Sri Harmandir Sahib, Amritsar in 1984. Mr Powell coordinated the review but the evidence was gathered and analysed by officials from the Cabinet Office, the FCDO, the MoD and other government agencies. Had officials discovered evidence of a conflict of interest in the course of the investigation, Mr Powell would have been invited to recuse himself from the review. No such action was required.

The civil servants who worked on the Review were bound by the same standards of integrity, honesty, impartiality and objectivity, set out in the Civil Service Code that apply to all civil servants.