The COR prefix documents

On 23 January 2012 I contacted the National Archives with a Freedom of Information request regarding any documents they had with a COR prefix ... in other words documents involving the coroner.  They came back to me with a list of 15 items.  This is the request and response:

“This FOI request is for a schedule of all the documents submitted to the Hutton Inquiry to which the Inquiry used the prefix "COR". These to include any that have been returned to the sender. The information required is the COR number of each document, the date of each document together with a brief description of each document.”

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Your request has been handled under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA). I can confirm that we hold the information you have asked for and have communicated this to you below.

Since the transfer of the documents to the National Archives I can confirm that no documents have been removed from the COR prefix.

The following documents were transferred to The National Archives using the COR prefix created by the Hutton Inquiry Secretariat:

COR prefix documents

Post Mortem Report COR/1/0001-0014

Letter Hughes / Gardiner 22 July 2003 COR/1/0020-0021

Letter Lord Hutton / Gardiner 28 July 2003 COR/1/0188

Letter Lord Chancellor / Janice Kelly 13 August 2003 COR/2/001-002

Letter Gardiner / Lord Hutton 14 August 2003 COR/2/0236

Letter Gardiner / Lord Hutton 20 August 2003 COR/2/0237

Notes of Evidence from 21 July 2003 COR/2/0238

Letter from Dr Kelly’s Medical Centre/Coroner’s Office 4 August 2003 COR/2/0239

Final Post Mortem Report COR/1/0240-0253

Witness Statement of Toxicologist Dr Allan 21 July 2003 COR/2/0254-0259

Witness Statement Janice Kelly COR/2/0260

Notes of Coroner 14 August 2003 COR/2/0261-0262

Letter Gardiner / Allan 23 January 2004 COR/7/0001

Note of Coroner’s Rules 1984 23 January 2004 COR/7/0002

Letter Gardiner / Lord Hutton 28 January 2004 COR/7/0003

                                                                                                                                    

I have been critical of the coroner Nicholas Gardiner in the past, and will continue in like vein where appropriate.  Here though it appears that he was behaving in a perfectly professional manner in keeping the Hutton Inquiry informed of his activities.

Mr Gardiner briefly reconvened the inquest on 14 August and from the schedule it can be seen that the Inquiry received a letter from him (COR/2/0236) and his notes of that day (COR/2/0261-0262).  This is of particular interest when related to a letter sent by Hutton to Norman Baker in 2007, something to be discussed in my next post.

One other quick point to flag up is the fact that it is only the first of Dr Allan's three reports that is listed here.  In fact reports 2 and 3 weren't written until after 14 August, they aren't listed on the Hutton website and it seems that Hutton was oblivious of their presence.  It wasn't until Mr Grieve made his statement on 9 June 2011 that they were listed anywhere.  The letter from Mr Gardiner to Dr Allan of 23 January 2004 - five days before Hutton published his report is intriguing (COR/7/001), particularly when allied to the fact that on the same date the "Note of Coroner's Rules 1984" (COR//7/0002) was sent.

I imagine that the first document listed COR/1/0001-0014 is Dr Hunt's original report of 19 July 2003 ... Hutton certainly refers to that ealier report when he makes his opening statement on 1 August.

There is some linework at the bottom of the schedule which shouldn't be there, that's my fault.  I don't know how to delete it from blogger unfortunately!