Sir Edward Heath

(asked on 15th October 2018) - View Source

Question to the Home Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the answers by Baroness Williams of Trafford on 11 October (HL Deb, cols 177–9), whether there are any provisions in law which would prevent them from conducting an independent inquiry into Operation Conifer.


Answered by
Baroness Williams of Trafford Portrait
Baroness Williams of Trafford
Captain of the Honourable Corps of Gentlemen-at-Arms (HM Household) (Chief Whip, House of Lords)
This question was answered on 29th October 2018

Under Section 54(2) of the Police Act 1996, Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector of Constabulary is charged with inspecting and reporting on the efficiency and effectiveness of every police force maintained for a police area. Any reviews he carries out must be done for this purpose. In its most recent Effectiveness inspection of Wiltshire Police in 2017, Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services judged the force to be “good”.

There is no provision in law which would prevent the Government from commissioning an independent inquiry into Operation Conifer but the Government would need a clear justification for doing so. As it is, Operation Conifer has already been subject to considerable external scrutiny: from its own Independent Scrutiny Panel; from Operation Hydrant (which delivers the national policing response, oversight and coordination of non-recent child sexual abuse investigations concerning persons of public prominence), and; from Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary which in January 2017 considered whether the resources assigned to the investigation by the Home Office were being deployed in accordance with value for money principles.

On this basis, and given Operation Conifer is an operational matter for the local police force and it is for the locally elected Police and Crime Commissioner to hold their force to account, the Government does not consider there to be grounds for the Government to intervene to instigate an independent inquiry into Operation Conifer.

The Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC) for Wiltshire and Swindon wrote to Home Office Ministers on 17 October 2017 and 24 April 2018. A reply from the Minister for Countering Extremism was issued on the 15th December 2017. The PCC has not given the Home Office any indication that he may be prepared to reverse his decision not to conduct an inquiry into Operation Conifer.

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