The woman tasked to oversee investigations into Jimmy Savile child abuse within the NHS is expected to publish her final report sometime this week.
Kate Lampard, a former practising barrister and former Deputy Chair of the Financial Ombudsman Service, was appointed by the Secretary of State in October 2012 to provide independent oversight of three independent investigations into the role of Jimmy Savile in the NHS.
The remit of her first report, published in June 2014 for the Secretary of State for Health, was to ‘assure the Secretary of State that the investigations into Savile’s relationships with NHS organisation and his activities on their premises had been properly conducted.’ It concluded that the oversight process used has been ‘comprehensive’ and that the NHS investigations completed to date into matters relating to Jimmy Savile had been conducted in ‘an appropriate and robust fashion and that the resulting reports should be published.’
On publication of the reports in June 2014, Permanent Secretary of the Department of Health Una O’Brien said:
“The reports detail the depraved activities of Jimmy Savile and make for shocking reading.”
“On behalf of the previous Department of Health and Social Security, and Department of Health, we are deeply sorry that inadequate processes in 1988 enabled Jimmy Savile to occupy a position of authority that he used to abuse his victims at Broadmoor Hospital.”
“The Department of Health accepts that the procedures in 1988 were wholly inadequate for checking whether Jimmy Savile was a suitable person to be given a managerial role.”
“The Broadmoor report also makes two recommendations for the Department of Health and for public officials, including senior civil servants.”
“We agree with the recommendation that the Department of Health should only directly manage an operational service exceptionally. The new NHS system means the Department of Health provides assurance of the system but does not directly manage the NHS.”
“We agree with the recommendation that the Department of Health and NHS organisations should have policies in place to ensure public officials, including senior civil servants, should not be involved in appointment processes when they have a close personal relationship with an applicant.”
“While much has changed in the intervening years we will leave no stone unturned to make sure such appalling actions can never be repeated; our thoughts today are with the people who suffered and continue to suffer from these terrible crimes.”
“We now await Kate Lampard’s final lessons learned report in the autumn.”
Peter Garsden, President of the Association of Child Abuse Lawyers (ACAL) and author of abuselaw blog has said in the past that his worry is that the Savile abuse story is more about how the BBC and other organisations were so woefullly inept, rather than about how badly damaged his victims were. You can view Peter Garsden’s blogs below by clicking this link:
- Is the Savile cover up a surprise? (October 2012)
- Is Savile about the victims or the BBC (October 2012)
- What should victims of Jimmy Savile be doing now? (October 2012)
- The police interview of Jimmy Savile shows what a manipulative paedophile he was (October 2013)
- Is it reasonable to advertise for Savile compensation? (April 2014)
- Jimmy Savile Trust challenges the compensation scheme in the Court of Appeal (July 2014)
Kate Lampard’s report of her independent oversight of NHS investigations into matters relating to Jimmy Savile can be viewed by clicking this link.
