Chinook crash lawyers lodge formal complaint over unlawful disclosure

The material, which was disclosed to a media organisation following a commitment by defence minister Louise Sandher-Jones in the House of Commons in November last year, contains sensitive personal information relating to the bereaved families.

The Chinook Justice Campaign has now lodged a formal complaint demanding the MoD refer itself to the Information Commissioner’s Office, and demanding an urgent explanation from ministers. 

Lawyers for the families have also called for the relevant documents to be retracted and for all recipients to be notified that the personal data information contained should not be published or disclosed.
 
Lawyer for the families, Mark Stephens of Howard Kennedy LLP, said: “This represents a serious failure to protect the rights of families who have been deceived and lied to from day one. 
 
“It shows a callous disregard for their personal information, has added trauma to a three-decade long fight for the truth and raises fundamental questions about the department’s handling of sensitive material.
 
“The Ministry of Defence must urgently explain how and why it placed personal information about bereaved families into the public domain without proper safeguards or due process or any discussion with those families.
 
“Once again, these families are being subjected to further harm through the unlawful disclosure of their personal information at a time when the MoD claims it is engaged in dialogue with them. That is completely and utterly unacceptable and they deserve a full and frank apology and an urgent meeting with the Prime Minister, to which he has committed.”
 
The families say the breach is particularly distressing given the long history of their unhappy engagement with the MoD and the deeply sensitive nature of the case and they question why, if documents were sealed for 100-years for personal data reasons – as the MoD has repeatedly claimed – that these have been released now.

The release of the documents has prompted renewed demands for full transparency and a judge-led public inquiry, with families warning that they have been informed by senior government sources that further undisclosed material on the crash exists across government in several locations.

The Chinook Justice Campaign and a cross party group of MPs are now calling for the case to be treated as the one of the first tests of the proposed Hillsborough Law, which is intended to enforce a legal duty of candour on public authorities.