Context
Stephen Cross, Director of Corporate Affairs and a former police officer, advised the Trust on how to handle the consultants’ concerns. His Thirlwall Inquiry evidence addresses how internal communications framed the concerns as an employment matter rather than a patient-safety escalation, and the question of whether police should have been contacted earlier.
Key passages
Stephen Cross
My advice to the executive team at that point was that the RCPCH service review was the appropriate route. I was not persuaded that the evidential threshold for a police referral had been reached.
Counsel to the Inquiry
You are a former police officer, Mr Cross. You would agree, would you not, that the question for police is not whether the evidential threshold for a criminal charge is met, but whether the conduct warrants investigation?
Stephen Cross
Yes. That is correct. I accept I elided those two questions in the advice I gave at the time.
What to read alongside this
See our profile of Stephen Cross and the evidence of Tony Chambers on the executive decision-making.