PRACTICETribunal of inquiry - witnesses seeking to give oral evidence in different venue on security grounds - tribunal's refusal unreasonable because of serious or real possibility of risk to lifeR (A and others) v Lord Saville of Newdigate and others: QBD (Lord Justice Rose and Mr Justice Sullivan): 16 November 2001The Bloody Sunday Inquiry Tribunal refused to allow the applicants to give oral evidence to it at a venue other than Londonderry, Northern Ireland, where the events into which the tribunal was inquiring took place.It concluded that its primary objective of restoring public confidence would be seriously diminished, if not destroyed, by hearing the evidence elsewhere without compelling reasons to do so, and that its decision was not incompatible with the applicants' rights since there was no real and immediate risk to their lives from terrorist reprisals.

The applicants sought judicial review.David Lloyd Jones QC, Michael Bools and Nicholas Moss (instructed by Treasury Solicitor) for the applicants.

Christopher Clarke QC, Dinah Rose and Alan Roxborough (instructed by John Tate, inquiry solicitor) for the tribunal.

Ian Burnett, QC and William Hoskins (instructed by Treasury Solicitor) for the Ministry of Defence.

Michael Lavery QC, Seamus Treacy QC, SC and Karen Quinlivan (both of the Northern Ireland Bar) (instructed by Madden & Finucane, Belfast) for the families of the dead and wounded.

Lord Gifford QC and Richard Harvey (of the Northern Ireland Bar) (instructed by McCartney and Casey, Londonderry) for the family of James Wray, deceased.

Declan Morgan QC and Brian Kennedy (both of the Northern Ireland Bar) (instructed by Brendan Kern Kelly & Co, Belfast) for Michael Bradley and Michael Bridge.

Michael Mansfield QC, John Coyle and Kieran Mallon (both of the Northern Ireland Bar) (instructed by Desmond J Doherty & Co, Londonderry) for the family of Bernard McGuigan, deceased, the Nash family, Daniel Gillespie and Michael Quinn.

Eilis McDermott QC (of the Northern Ireland Bar) (instructed by Barr & Co, Londonderry) for the family of Patrick Doherty.

Sir Louis Blom-Cooper QC and Paddy O'Hanlon (of the Northern Ireland Bar) (instructed by Francis Keenan, Belfast) for the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association.Held, granting the application, that the tribunal had misdirected itself in law by failing to apply the correct test, which was whether the decision would be in breach of its obligation not to make a decision exposing anyone to the 'real possibility of a risk to life' in the future; that due consideration should have been given to wider public confidence, including that of the soldier witnesses themselves; and that once the risk of death was a serious or real possibility, it was for the tribunal to find compelling justification for interference with the soldiers rights, rather than to require the soldiers to provide compelling justification for giving evidence elsewhere; and that, accordingly, the decision would be quashed and remitted to the tribunal for reconsideration.