The purpose of this page is to help guide you through the relevant information on our website and to help you to understand how you could participate in the Inquiry’s work.
Background to the Inquiry
The Lampard Inquiry is a statutory inquiry investigating mental health inpatient deaths in Essex. It is chaired by Baroness Kate Lampard CBE. You can read more about Baroness Lampard here.
The Lampard Inquiry continues the work of the Essex Mental Health Independent Inquiry. On 27 October 2023, the Department of Health and Social Care issued a formal notice of conversion, confirming the Inquiry’s statutory status. You can read more about the non-statutory phase of the Inquiry here.
Between 1 November 2023 – 28 November 2023, Baroness Lampard held a public consultation
on the Inquiry’s Terms of Reference.
The final Terms of Reference were published on 10 April 2024. You can read these here. You can also read Frequently Asked Questions on the Terms of Reference here.
Core Participants
A Core Participant is an individual, organisation or institution that has a specific interest in the work of the Inquiry. Core Participants have a formal role and special rights in the Inquiry process.
To find out more information about Core Participants status, please click here.
Sharing information
If you think you have evidence that is relevant to the Inquiry, you are welcome to contact us to let us know. We may then contact you if we require more information.
Please note that we receive a high volume of communication. We take every query seriously, but there may be some that we may not respond to, such as general observations or those that fall outside the remit of the Inquiry.
The image below explains the different stages of the Inquiry. We are currently in Phase 2 – Collecting Evidence.
Please be aware before you provide us with information that we have safeguarding obligations. The welfare and safety of everyone who engages with the Inquiry is incredibly important to the Chair and the Inquiry team. To ensure this safety and welfare, if we identify risk, we may sometimes need to take action to address this.
There may be cases in which the Inquiry team would need to share information without the consent of the person or people involved. You can read more about the Inquiry’s approach to safeguarding here.
Giving evidence
Some of you may receive a formal written request from the Inquiry for you to provide us with evidence, which is known as a Rule 9 Request.
There are various ways you can provide evidence, including in a written statement, providing documents or orally at a public hearing. The Inquiry’s engagement team will provide information and support to anyone giving evidence to the Inquiry.
You can read more about our approach to evidence here.
Remaining anonymous
There may be circumstances where people wish to provide evidence but want to remain anonymous or to keep certain information confidential. The Inquiry Chair can decide whether to allow for this through a Restriction Order.
A Restriction Order can be made by the Chair of the Inquiry and restricts evidence from being made public if there are good reasons to do so. It can relate to any part of someone’s evidence, including their identity.
If you are concerned about anonymity or parts of your evidence being made public, you may wish to read more about Restriction Orders and how to apply for one here.
Public hearings
The Inquiry held its first hearings in September and November 2024.
All hearings are open to the public to attend, unless the Chair to the Inquiry has said otherwise.
Depending on the location, the Inquiry may require people to register an interest in attending before the event, to make sure that we have enough space for people to attend. We also live stream the hearings online (with a short delay for procedural reasons) so that anyone can watch the hearings remotely.
For more information about our hearings, please visit our Hearings Overview page.
To watch past hearings, or to find upcoming hearings, please visit this page.
Expenses
If you give evidence to the Inquiry, you can make an application to have your expenses paid by us. We cover reasonable expenses that arise as a result of you giving evidence as a witness. Expenses include transport costs of getting to the venue and home again, reasonable childcare costs and money to buy your lunch on the days you are giving evidence.
Full guidance on what expenses we cover and how to claim them is available here, along with an application form.
The Inquiry may also cover your legal expenses incurred through your involvement with the Inquiry. More information on this and how to apply for your legal costs to be covered can be found here.
Following the progress of the Inquiry
The Inquiry will publish updates on its work, including future hearing dates, further protocols, relevant documents and ultimately the Chair’s report, on the website’s Updates page.
You can also subscribe to receive the latest Lampard Inquiry updates direct to your inbox.
Information about how the Lampard Inquiry processes your data can be found in our Privacy Notice, available here.
