Annex A > Information about reference material and sources of evidence which will be of assistance when reading Annex A
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Information about reference material and sources of evidence which will be of assistance when reading Annex A
Annex A is an account of the evidence heard and received during Phase One of the Inquiry. It consists of 31 chapters. It is advisable to read this note before proceeding to read Annex A because it explains how you can gain access to (a) reference material: explanation of acronyms; details about individuals mentioned in the report and information about further reading, and (b) the sources of evidence and the footnotes in Annex A.
(a) Reference material
Explanation of acronyms: A list of acronyms commonly referred to in this Annex can be found at the end of the Final Report.
People: A list of the full names and titles of those individuals referred to in this Annex can be found at the end of the Final Report.
Further reading: A bibliography of published works which have informed the Panel's work can be found in Annex B.
(b) The sources of evidence and footnotes in Annex A
Annex A brings together evidence from a variety of sources, as indicated by the footnotes. There are five main sources:
This is a verbatim transcript of the evidence given orally over 96 days of hearings held during 1999/2000. The transcript is always referred to as `T' followed by the day of evidence and the page number of the transcript for that day. Thus `T39 p.37 Mr Hooper' refers to page 37 of the transcript for Day 39 of the hearings, the evidence of Mr Hooper. | |
The Inquiry received 577 statements from witnesses, 127 of whom also gave oral evidence to the Inquiry during Phase One. The statements are always referred to as `WIT' followed by a string of reference numbers and the name of the person who provided the statement. Thus `WIT 0074 0021 Dr Baker' refers to page 21 of the written statement of witness 74, Dr Ian Baker, Where individuals provided more than one statement the witness number remains the same, and the pages of each statement run on consecutively. The Inquiry also invited formal written comments on witness statements from those people who were referred to or who had an interest in a statement. References to such formal written comments also begin with the letters `WIT'. | |
A number of the participants to the Inquiry prepared final submissions at the end of the oral hearings. Other individuals made unsolicited submissions to the Inquiry. These are referred to as `SUB'. | |
The Inquiry received 42, 071 documents, amounting to 219, 828 individual pages in total (900, 000 when medical records are included) from several main sources. [1] These include, for example, minutes of meetings, reports and correspondence. The vast majority of these documents were from the period under review (1984 to 1995). A reference to a document always begins with the source from which the Inquiry acquired the document (which is not necessarily the same as the originator of the document). The main references to sources are UBHT (United Bristol Healthcare Trust); DOH (Department of Health) and HAA (Avon Health Authority). | |
The Inquiry commissioned a considerable number of papers from experts, including statistical analyses. These papers always start with the letters `INQ'. |
| [1] A full list of the meaning of all the acronyms used to identify various sources of documents is at the end of this note |
Accessing the sources of evidence via the CDs and the Inquiry's website
The evidence files are available on the CDs and website in PDF format. These files can be viewed using Adobe Acrobat Reader software. This software is free and links to it and instructions are available on the CDs and the website.
Access to the sources is possible via the CDs and the Inquiry's website, www.bristolinquiry.org.uk, which will continue in existence after the Inquiry has ended.
Access via the footnotes in Annex A
The footnotes in Annex A refer to a page or pages of one of the five main categories of evidence: transcript, witness statement, submission, document or Inquiry paper. Click on the footnote number in the text. You will be taken first to a brief description of the source document (for example, it will tell you whose statement you are about to look at, or whether you are about to see an extract from the minutes of a meeting or a letter). Click again, wait a few moments, and the page will be displayed on your screen.
Access via the other annexes
The CDs and the website both contain: Annex B - papers commissioned by or submitted to the Inquiry; Annex C - the Inquiry's Interim Report; and Annex D - the transcript of the oral hearings. A full list of the contents of the CDs can be found at the end of the Final Report.
Access to witness statements
All witness statements and all formal written comments on those statements can only be viewed in full via the Inquiry's website, www.bristolinquiry.org.uk. These are not available on the CDs.
It is not possible through any of the routes to view in full all of the documents submitted to the Inquiry. All relevant extracts are being made public through the footnotes in Annex A. The documents themselves cannot be made public in full because they contain information which is extraneous to the Inquiry's Terms of Reference and further, their publication could impinge on the privacy of individuals.
List of acronyms applied to documents referred to in footnotes
Association of Paediatric Anaesthetists and the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health | |
United Kingdom Central Council for Nursing, Midwifery and Health Visiting | |
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