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Selected Cases and Summaries of Completed Investigations - April to September 2000
Volume 3 - 3rd REPORT - SESSION 2000-2001
Chapter 2
FOREIGN AND COMMONWEALTH OFFICE
Case No: C.302/00
Failure to act promptly and provide correct information after the death of a British Citizen in an air crash and repatriation of the body to the UK
Mr M complained that the Foreign and Commonwealth Office had failed to act promptly and to provide correct information after the death of his son in an aircrash in Vietnam in November 1992 and the repatriation of the wrong body to the UK. Despite representations Mr M put to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office on numerous occasions following the aircrash, by 1999 a number of issues remained unresolved, including the reasons for the repatriation by the Vietnamese of Mr M's son's body to Holland, and failure by the Vietnamese to issue a full report of their investigation of the crash. As a result of the Ombudsman's intervention, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office's Permanent Under Secretary of State wrote apologising to Mr M for the standard of service afforded to him by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office from January 1994. Additionally, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office disclosed to Mr M consular records to which they had originally refused him access under the Code of Practice on Access to Government Information; and they took up matters afresh with the Vietnamese authorities on Mr M's behalf to try to resolve the matters outstanding. The Ombudsman criticised the Foreign and Commonwealth Office for premature destruction of consular records; for failure to have noticed, or to have raised with the Vietnamese authorities, a discrepancy between Mr M's son's passport number and the passport number on the Vietnamese post-mortem report on a body identified as that of Mr M's son; for the poor standard of service afforded to Mr M from January 1994; for failure to remind the Vietnamese authorities of the provisions of the Air Transport Agreement Chicago 1944; for failure to provide promptly dental and forensic information to the Dutch authorities; and for refusing Mr M access to consular records. The Ombudsman welcomed the Permanent Under Secretary's apologies, his undertaking to review the Foreign and Commonwealth Office's guidance on retention and disposal of consular records, and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office's renewed, albeit belated, efforts to resolve matters with the Vietnamese authorities.
Case No: C.791/00
Provision of assistance and information following the death of a British national in India
Mrs L complained that the British Deputy High Commission in Calcutta had failed to provide adequate assistance and information after her son died following a road traffic accident on the night of 18 January 1995, having allegedly been refused admission to a nearby hospital. The Ombudsman found that the Commission had made considerable efforts to assist Mrs L and provide her with relevant documents, but had failed properly to explore and define the limits of their role at an early stage, while their pursuit of the documents had been less effective than Mrs L had a right to expect. Those shortcomings had increased the trouble and expense that the situation had caused Mrs L. The Permanent Under Secretary of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office apologised to Mrs L for the Commission's shortcomings and agreed to offer her an ex gratia payment of £100 in recognition of the additional trouble and expense which had been caused. He reminded consular staff of the importance of obtaining certain documents following the death of a British national abroad.
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