§ Dr. FoxTo ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what plans the Government have to hold a public inquiry into the death of Lauren Wright; [27238]
(2) what measures have been put in place to ensure that there is no repetition of the events which led to the death of Lauren Wright. [27236]
§ Jacqui SmithI apologise to the hon. Member for the delay in responding to this question. I refer him to the reply that my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State gave my hon. Friend the Member for Blackpool, North and Fleetwood (Mrs. Humble) on 5 March 2002,Official Report, column 192W.
We have no plans to hold a public inquiry in this case. This does not ignore the tragedy that Lauren Wright's death represents, but we need to balance detailed investigation and inquiry with action that will ensure we minimise the possibility of such tragedies happening again.
In Lauren's case, the independent review into the actions of health staff and organisations, which is due to report in March 2002; the robust oversight by the Area Child Protection Committee of the implementation by local agencies of the action plan produced to take forward the recommendations of the serious case review; the follow-up inspection of Norfolk's children's services by 1005W the Social Services Inspectorate, which found substantial improvements in Norfolk's child care and child protection services; and the Social Services Inspectorate/Audit Commission Joint Review of Norfolk scheduled for March 2002, should together ensure that the lessons from this tragedy are learned and applied in practice in the future within Norfolk.
We have already established a statutory inquiry into the death of another little girl, Victoria Climbie. The Victoria Climbie inquiry, being chaired by Lord Laming, is a wide ranging inquiry that will closely examine the working of our child protection system. We anticipate that this inquiry will produce recommendations that will be relevant to child protection practice and procedure across the country, and which, as far as possible, will prevent further tragedies of this kind. We look forward to Lord Laming's report and his recommendations with interest.