Victims and Prisoners Act 2024

Reviews

46 Review of duty of candour in relation to major incidents

(1) The Secretary of State or the Minister for the Cabinet Office must, before 1 January 2025, carry out a review to determine the extent to which additional duties of transparency and candour should be imposed on public servants in relation to major incidents.

(2) The Secretary of State or the Minister for the Cabinet Office may discharge the duty in subsection (1) by arranging for another person to carry out the review.

(3) The Secretary of State or the Minister for the Cabinet Office must, as soon as reasonably practicable after the completion of the review—

(a) prepare, or arrange for another person to prepare, a report about the review,

(b) publish the report, and

(c) lay the report before Parliament.

(4) In this section, “public servant” means—

(a) a public authority within the meaning given by section 35(2)(a) (see section 35(5));

(b) any person exercising the functions of a public authority (including as an employee of a public authority or as a person in the civil service of the State).

47 Review of operation of Part 2

(1) The Secretary of State must, as soon as reasonably practicable after the end of the review period—

(a) prepare and publish a report about the operation in the review period of this Part, and

(b) lay the report before Parliament.

(2) The “review period” is the period of 18 months beginning with the day on which the power in section 36(1) (appointment of advocate in respect of major incident) is first exercised.