Home Secretary puts secrecy order on Salisbury inquiry
The Home Secretary has taken the “exceptional” step of imposing a secrecy order on the inquiry into the Salisbury poisonings, a hearing has been told.
Priti Patel, then the Home Secretary, signed a “restriction notice” on 27 July which prevents the inquiry sharing documents with the family of Dawn Sturgess – who was killed by Novichok in July 2018 – or making them public.
Ms Sturgess, 44, from Salisbury, Wiltshire, died after she was given a bottle of what appeared to be perfume by her partner, which actually contained a military-grade nerve agent.
She collapsed at the home of Charlie Rowley in Amesbury, Wilts and was taken to Salisbury District Hospital where she died on 8 July 2018, without regaining consciousness.
Read more: What is Novichok?
Her death followed the poisoning of Sergei Skripal, a Russian double agent, and his daughter Yulia, in Salisbury in March 2018, although both recovered after hospital treatment.
Two Russian GRU agents, using the names Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov, are charged with attempted murder, despite claiming on Russian TV that they were on a sightseeing tour to Salisbury Cathedral.
A third man, using the name Sergey Fedotov, who appears to have been the unit’s commander, is also charged with attempted murder.
‘Sensitive’ material
A hearing at the Royal Courts of Justice, ahead of a public inquiry, was told that there is so much “sensitive” material to consider that a date for the hearings will not be set until next spring.
Andrew O’Connor KC, for the inquiry said that a restriction order would normally be made by the chairman in a “transparent” way, having heard submissions from “core participants”.
“A restriction notice, by contrast, is essentially an instruction from a government minister made without consultation,” he added, addressing the chairman.
“In most – some would say all – cases it ought to be you and not the Secretary of State who takes the decision as to what evidence can be adduced in open proceedings, and what material must remain in closed.”
However, he said that the restriction notice covers “only a small set of documents which represent an extremely small proportion of the total number of documents that have been provided, or are being provided, to the inquiry legal team by His Majesty’s Government.”
It will not prevent the chairman from considering the material during closed hearings.
So far, only 40 documents of the 28,000 disclosed to the inquiry by the government and police have been passed to lawyers for the Sturgess family.
Packaging for a counterfeit bottle of perfume that was recovered from Charlie Rowley’s home after he and his partner Dawn Sturgess were poisoned
Government try to get names removed
The government had tried to get the names of all government employees below the rank of senior civil servant, removed from documents shared with the family, but the application was turned down by the chairman, Lord Hughes of Ombersley.
Cathryn McGahey KC for the government, said it was “hugely important that nothing is disclosed that helps a hostile state or terrorist to conduct another attack or to make it more deadly”.
She said that the “greater proportion” of the documents so far disclosed to the inquiry would require restriction orders by the government, which means they cannot be disclosed to the public.
Sergei Skripal’s house
Ms McGahey told the hearing it was “important we don’t raise false hopes or expectations” over how long a “sensitivity review” was likely to take.
“On any view, this is a slow process and takes considerable time and expertise to get it right,” she added.
An amber warning has been issued for snow in a part of the UK, likely to cause travel delays and “stranding some vehicles and passengers”.
The warning, which covers south west England, also warns some rural communities could become cut off and is in place until 2pm this evening.
Pic: Met Office
There is also a yellow weather warning for snow covering the southern counties of England until midnight on Wednesday.
The warning stretches from Kent to Cornwall and up to south London and the Met Office said between 2cm and 5cm of snow could accumulate fairly widely, with as much as 10cm over higher ground.
This week is expected to see the coldest nights of the year, with temperatures potentially reaching -14C on Wednesday night and -16C on Thursday night, both in the North East of England and Scotland, the Met Office said.
Weather warnings issued on Tuesday for snow and ice covering the parts of Wales, the North West of England, west and northern parts of Scotland as well as Northern Ireland will remain in place until midnight tomorrow.
The forecaster said some roads and railways are likely to be affected and there could be icy patches on untreated roads.
Pics: AP
Meanwhile the Environment Agency has said at least 300 properties have flooded across England since New Year’s Eve. It estimates more than 41,000 properties have been protected.
Heavy rainfall over the New Year caused significant river and surface water flooding across the North West of England and Yorkshire and snowmelt has brought further disruption to parts of England, particularly the Midlands, the agency said.
Read more from Sky News:
Terrifying firestorm rips through home of film stars and billionaires
Homes destroyed – how people are coping with floods
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Man says flooding ‘came out of nowhere’
Floods minister Emma Hardy said: “My sympathies go out to the people, businesses and communities impacted by the recent flooding across the country.
“I want to express my heartfelt thanks for the vital work that the Environment Agency and emergency services are doing to keep people safe. People must continue to follow their advice and sign up for flood warnings.”
Flood warnings
Some 100 flood warnings were in force across England on Wednesday, with people urged to remain vigilant over the coming days.
A danger-to-life warning was issued on Tuesday morning for the River Soar near Barrow upon Soar, Leicestershire, but was later removed.
People living in caravan parks in the area were urged by the Environment Agency to act, with a large-scale evacuation needed to save lives.
Firefighters have rescued dozens of people across Leicestershire since Monday, Leicestershire Fire and Rescue Service said.
Hundreds of schools were closed across the UK, with road and rail links blocked, as Manchester, Bristol and Liverpool John Lennon airports suspended flights because of the conditions.
-
Sports2 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports9 months agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports1 year agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Sports2 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports3 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Environment2 years agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Environment2 years agoGame-changing Lectric XPedition launched as affordable electric cargo bike
-
Business2 years agoBank of England’s extraordinary response to government policy is almost unthinkable | Ed Conway