Context
Corinne Slingo and Simon Medland KC are members of the Counsel to the Thirlwall Inquiry team. Their role is not to give evidence but to structure the Inquiry’s examination — identifying witnesses, setting the scope of questioning, and pressing witnesses on contested points. This page summarises how their questioning structured the HR/legal and executive strands of the Inquiry’s examination in November 2024.
The framing used by Counsel to the Inquiry
Counsel to the Inquiry structured the examination of the Trust’s senior HR and executive layer around three questions:
- What did the witness know, and when did they know it?
- What did the witness do with what they knew — or, in the key instances, not do?
- How did the witness respond when the consultants escalated further?
The third question is where most of the cross-examination weight has fallen, because it is where the apology-letter sequence and the decision not to contact police sit.
Read alongside
Tony Chambers (CEO), Ian Harvey (Medical Director), Sue Hodkinson (HR Director), Stephen Cross (Corporate Affairs).