§ Mr. Spearingasked the Secretary of State for the Environment when the records of the public inquiry into the Ronan Point disaster will be available for authorised inspection; what is the period during which they have not been available; and what are the reasons for their non-availability.
§ Mr. GowI understand that access was given to the records of the public inquiry in the period immediately after it reported. When the papers were recovered from storage in order to reply to the hon. Member on 23 October 1984, at columns 553–54 they were found to be in a disordered state and some papers are missing. The task of ordering, securing and cataloguing the papers in order to give the further access which the hon. Member has requested is substantial. The papers should be available for access early in the new year.