Examination of Witnesses (Questions 78-79)
MR AL
HUTCHINSON, MR
SAM POLLOCK
AND MR
JIM COUPLAND
20 FEBRUARY 2008
Q78 Chairman: Mr Hutchinson, could I
welcome you and Mr Pollock and Mr Coupland most warmly. Thank
you very much indeed for coming. We have in fact already had informal
conversations on the terms of our current inquiry and we are very
grateful to you for coming to give formal evidence. The Committee
may well wish to have a brief private session with you afterwards
and if there are things you would rather raise with the Committee
in private session because of issues of confidentiality and sensitivity,
then of course we are very happy to comply with that, but we would
like as much on the record as is possible. I perhaps ought to
advise you that we are expecting a vote in the House of Commons
sometime between half past four and a quarter to five, and so
we will aim to finish this session, including any private session,
by half past four. Is there anything you would like to say by
way of opening submission before I begin the questioning?
Mr Hutchinson: Just very briefly,
it is a pleasure to be here in front of the Committee. I hope
that the experience which Sam Pollock, Jim Coupland and myself
bring from the Police Ombudsman's perspective can assist the Committee
in its deliberations and I welcome the questions.
Q79 Chairman: Thank you very much
indeed. Just so that we have certain things on the record, perhaps
you could begin by saying something about the different types
of referrals which lead to your starting a historic investigation?
Mr Hutchinson: Yes. We would receive
complaints, and do receive complaints, firstly through the Historical
Enquiries Team references, public references, individual complaints
and agencies such as the Pat Finucane Centre, for example, and
certainly the European Courts recently. So there is a variety
of sources that come to us. Primarily the Historical Enquiries
Team is the area of challenge.
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